


At Rest

by Akua



Category: Naruto, TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Crossover, Everyone Has Issues, Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 10:29:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 48,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13165047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akua/pseuds/Akua
Summary: Escaping the hostility of the elemental countries, Sai leads Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke to a land across the ocean to escape the promise of death from the nations. There is danger ahead, and danger behind, language barriers to cross, and evil to avoid.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ... So, I'm posting this here from FF.Net because I can't figure out how to post my brand new chapter... so here is a massive dump. And then a new chapter. This is a WIP, I don't know when I'll update. I started this in 2009, and the first few chapters are riddled with grammar and strange other problems. I'll fix it one day.
> 
> (I am the OP for this. Please don't report this I formatted it so nicely...)

**Disclaimer :** None of the character, techniques and such belong to me. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Tolkien respectively. This crossover idea is mine, though.  
  
**A.N.** : ... I'm just having real bad luck with updating one story but this one didn't want to be stopped. So I wrote it and here if the first chapter with its magnificient length. I just needed to get this out. That and I still haven't found that many crossovers in this category.. Well, I made one. I hope you lot like it, and that if you see anything wrong or if you have any suggestions, well... notify me.

* * *

  
**Chapter 1:**

Sakura panted as she ran with all her worth. She was doing her best to outrun the death that was no doubt at her heels. At their heels. She had made an enemy out of every nation on the Elemental Continent! Emerald eyes focused ahead with burning determination—she wasn't going to die just because people wanted her to be dead! She wasn't going to let anyone kill the people that were most dear to her. They would have to go through her to go to her precious people!

Because the teammates around her were the majority of the people she called precious.

She fisted her hands in the pants of man she was carrying on her back, as if the action made him more real. The dark material easily blending in with her black gloves—these were Sasuke's pants. Sasuke was on her back. Sakura ignored the burning behind her eyes. This was no time to cry. She didn't deserve the relief that came with tears.

She was the one that had driven Naruto to this.

"Sai! Don't slow down!" She called without looking back. His footsteps had been lagging over time. But with her call the pasty skinned teen was soon at her side once again. Her eyes didn't look to him when she turned her head, but to the boy that he was also carrying on his back. Naruto was in just as sorry of a state as Sasuke. Even though they hadn't fought personally, he had had to fight off so many people just to bring Sasuke to them.

Sakura didn't know the details, but she could theorize over what had happened. Until they were all in a working state, she didn't need to ask. Naruto would have told him if it was truly necessary. He was stubborn like that.

Naruto had tried so hard for this. But he succeeded in bringing Sasuke back to her. But now that she had her former teammate back she couldn't understand it. She didn't know, she hadn't known till Sai and Shikamaru had pointed it out. She hadn't understood, truly understood that the type of suffering that Naruto had gone was truly unique from her own when Sasuke was concerned.

Sakura and Sai dashed in to a clearing, it was a decently large place with a river splitting through the middle of the field. If they had the time she would have suggested that they go around the edges and remain out of sight. But they had neither the time nor the energy to waste.

None of them had a home to go back to. And Sakura hoped that her parents... and their friends would forgive her and Naruto for this.

They weren't properly packed for being on the run. Sakura hadn't even really stopped to give Sasuke and Naruto medical attention when they stumbled upon her and Sai as they traveled toward the Kage meeting. They didn't have much food, spare clothing, only a small amount of medical supplies, and they hadn't planned on bringing enough weapons to fight an all out war against every ninja in existence.

_Sasuke.. why did you..? Why do you still...?_

This mental anguish was so clear and painful, she barely noticed that they had gone over the river. Her body had known by instinct to pump the chakra to her feet to help her cross. Sai remained at her side as they hurried. She really didn't understand why he was still there and why he was helping her bring two fugitives to safety. And becoming a fugitive himself—it took a moment before she understood and remembered that he had implied that he had had no one left to return to. He still struggled with his emotions but she had never really thought that he would feel such companionship to their team.

"Old hag..." Sai spoke softly, looking to Sakura out of the corner of his eye. If it had been said under normal circumstances then Sakura might have been angry about the name or would have used some energy to appear angry just for old times sake. But she couldn't waste the energy. "What?" Maybe that single syllable had come out angrier then it should have.

Sai didn't look amused. "Where can we go?"

Sakura didn't pause in her stride as she mulled over the question. Konoha and its allies were definitely not places they could go. They couldn't even go to their enemies because there was the fact that Sasuke had tried to make an attempt on every nation's Kage's lives! The Land of Waves was out of the question too. Even if there were no Hidden Villages there, they would still be surrounded on all sides by shinobi.

"We can go nowhere." Sakura said after a moment. "We can never settle in to one place. That would be deadly for us.." Her head spun as she tried to think of somewhere to go for at least temporary safety. Somewhere for them to lick their wounds—they all needed to go somewhere safe so that they could prepare to fight for the rest of their lives.

But she wasn't a genius. If only they had Shikamaru with them!

But Shikamaru wouldn't abandon his village like they had.

"… I may know where we can go." Sai said after a moment of deliberation. He wasn't looking at Sakura, but she was looking toward him. Her eyes became intense on his pasty, expressionless face as if he held the secrets to immortal life.

Not that she wanted to live forever, as it was.

"Where?"

"… I'm not at liberty to say. But I can lead the way."

Sakura went silent as she eyed the other boy. What if this was a trick? He had been a plant for Danzo at one point. She remembered the way he had been when he had first arrived on the team. She had almost lost her life because of him. Maybe he wasn't as willing to leave the village to he had appeared. What if this was a trick that would lead them right in to the waiting arms of the ANBU?

Then she remembered the seal that Sai had shown. The black marks that marred the back of his tongue. She shuddered to herself as they continued on their flight. She could feel the steady drain this was having on her. But she wasn't as weak as she had been years ago and she could endure this. Her super human strength came from her torturous Chakra training under Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage. She was that woman's apprentice. Maybe not her first but she had still learned under that woman. She was strong.

She would endure.

She wouldn't be the one that dragged them down.

And if Sai was in this together with her, then they would endure this together. She had to trust him. They would all have to trust each other if they wanted to live.

"Lead the way.." Hopefully this wasn't a mistake.

Sai nodded before shooting off. Turning their course a sharp right and leading the way—Sakura understood where Sai was leading them even if she was a bit puzzled over it. Why were they heading to the ocean?

* * *

Sakura sent Sai a neat glare as she made the raft. Or, she did most of the work for it. She was the one that had to cut and carry the massive logs over to the boy so that he could tie them together. It was a very crude ship. But it would be suicide to try and buy one and she didn't feel up to stealing one. That would be a waste of time and an accident waiting to happen. They couldn't leave Naruto and Sasuke alone and without the two of them around, if they were attacked, they would all be systematically hunted down and destroyed.

Though, the ship was a sign that wherever they were going was too far for them to water walk.

Setting the last log down with a huff, Sakura rolled her shoulders, ignoring her exhaustion as she watched Sai tie the last log on. Six short logs across, there was plenty of room for their packs and the four people that were on it. There wasn't enough time to make anything else for the ship. Who knew how close their pursuers were now?

It didn't take long for them to pile Naruto, Sasuke and their small, thin bags on to the raft. Soon, they had pushed the wood off in to water. Sai and Sakura stayed on top of the water and they continued to push until they found a good current that took them out to sea. It was fortunate that they found it, Sakura could feel the exhaustion really taking a toll now. Water-walking while shoving their makeshift raft wasn't helping her at all.

The day before had been the day Naruto had shown up with Sasuke. Sakura was surprised that they had yet to be caught. Sitting at Naruto's feet, Sakura looked over to where an equally tired Sai was sitting.

"Sai.. how many people know of the place we're going to?"

Sai glanced over to her, his dark hair, eyes and clothes standing out like a sore thumb against the wood of their raft and the water that they were drifting over. He nodded slightly, she had phrased that question well. Well enough for him to give something out without fear of retribution of a sort and well enough for him to actually say something. "Not many. But the few that know of it could be troublesome.." Sakura cracked a grin at the use of such a trademark word. Even if it made the ache inside her grow.

She stuffed her gloves in to the pouch at her waist and rubbed her hands together. She could bet one of the people that had any idea where they might be going would be Danzo. And that man was dangerous.

She sighed and stretched out on her back and watched the setting sun. "Wake me up in a few hours and I'll keep watch then while I run some diagnostics." Naruto and Sasuke weren't so injured that they would die before she could rest up. She needed her chakra in tip-top shape for this.

"Affirmative."

* * *

Sakura worked by candlelight. The early dawn light wasn't enough to work by. She hovered over Naruto. There wasn't that many injuries left on the demon-carrier. Sakura almost flinched at the though as she gently patted the other on the head. He was going to be exhausted for a while. But overall, he was healing just fine on his own. Even if she had to settle a broken arm before it could properly start the healing process.

She had turned her attention soon to Sasuke. His condition wasn't the best. She had to set his left shin, right ankle and his right arm. She had to burn a considerable amount of chakra for the medical techniques that were needed to fix him up. But by the end of it, Sasuke looked better then he had in the short time that he had been in their case. She rubbed the side of her arm as she looked at the makeshift splints. She had sped along the healing process of the bones but they were still fragile and the left shin was, for the most part, broken.

She had used Sasuke's own katana and katana sheath to bind his leg. She had searched him and came out with a sheathed small sword to use for his arm. The ankle had been done mostly with bandages and a kuni that she had quickly dulled and bent out of shape for him. He was incredibly fragile when compared to Naruto, so she was going to take some caution with his abused and overused body.

Sitting by his side, she reached out and touched his face… and wondered when the face of a stranger had taken the place of her teammate, crush and tentative friend. Sasuke had such a strong face now. Different from the softness that he had had as a child—it made her fists clench, just thinking about it. They could have all grown up together. They could have been friends together.

But Sasuke had run away.

Irritably, she rubbed the tears out of her eyes and blew out the candle. She waited for it to cool and solidify before slipping it back in to her pack. She shouldn't waste precious supplies just because she wanted a little light and warmth. The sun was just rising and finally turning the inky black sea in to it's natural blue. Looking ahead and behind she couldn't see any sign of land.

It scared her a bit. She didn't really know where they were. She tugged on her own shirt as she watched the sea around them. Watched the movements, the currents… It was all so flat. It was as if this world of constant change and watery depths went on for eternity. It was soothing, it felt like a world that was meant just for them.

A world just for them because the world that they had tried to live in couldn't accept them. Or, they couldn't accept the world.

Sakura kept watch on their nothingness as they continued to drift along on the ocean's current to the destination that would hopefully bring their safety, all the while her thoughts remained at the home that was no longer a home and the people who would know be searching for their heads.

* * *

Naruto had woken up two days after they had been at sea. It had now been officially five and a half days since they had become the enemy to every nation. Naruto had shown regret, but there was a determination in his eyes that Sakura didn't want to question. It was a determination that she only wanted to draw strength from.

Sasuke showed no signs of waking.

They were already rationing supplies. Sai had even taken to the water to try and find some edible sea life. But the water was deep and the fish weren't anywhere near the surface so they all had to stick with their ration bars. The cardboard flavored bars were at least handy on the fact that they filled you up easily and supplied plenty of energy.

Sakura just wished that they had a lot more of them. Or at least had some more food in general. She knew that Naruto was still hungry, he had the stomach of a black hole. And she knew that Sai was hungry because he was eating significantly less then them. And she knew that she had been given more then the others because of her importance as their medical ninja.

They all took long turns sleeping, it kept the edge of hunger off most of the time and stores their energy.

They drifted in silence.

* * *

Sasuke woke up on the seventh day. They had run out of food by then. He didn't say a word to them as he gazed up blankly at the sky with his black eyes. He had closed his eyes and ignored them all even though they all knew he was awake and he knew that he wasn't fooling anyone.

Sai looked like he wanted to say something, but thought better of it. The silence remained unbroken.

They all had heard the tears that Sasuke had shed that night. The soft wetness to his silence hung in the night air with a viciousness that was normally only seen in battle.

* * *

On the eighth morning, they spotted enemies on the horizon. They were coming in fast behind them so Sai summarized that they may be Mist-nin coming to claim their bounties. Or just coming to claim them. Sai had been on watch when they appeared at dusk. He had shaken Naruto and Sakura awake and they all stealthily got ready.

"Even if you can't see it… the land should be close." Sai and mumbled as Naruto reached down and jostled Sasuke awake by swinging the other on to his back. Sasuke's face was unreadable as he surveyed them all. His body limp and his eyes heavy from on Naruto's back. The chakra exhaustion and lack of real medical care and food had taken its toll. The battle had done more damage then it should have without the proper recovery.

Sakura turned to Naruto and almost asked for the other to make clones to pose as them on their raft… but the question never came. That was a waste of energy. They wouldn't be fooling anyone.

Sai tentatively stepped off the raft and stood on the water. Easily keeping on top of the moving surface as he watched the others step off after him. Naruto stood firm and stiff with Sasuke clutched tightly. Sakura thought that Sasuke would have some unnecessary bruises on his thighs because of it, but she didn't say anything. Sasuke hadn't said anything to them at all in the times they had all been conscious.

Sai quickly led them ahead of their now empty raft, moving at a soft jog over the water. The water barely stirred as he and Sakura passed. Soft splashes and ripples followed Naruto's steps—but no one said anything about it. Now was not the time for lectures or conversations. Now was the time for running and escaping and surviving.

The raft was long out of their sight and the sun had risen and fallen low on the horizon before the tip of land could be seen ahead of them. The mist-nin behind them hadn't gotten further away even as they continued onward. Sakura could bet on her life that they had most likely gotten only closer to them on their continued run.

By the time they indeed, did see land, Sakura and Sai were nearing the ends of their rope. Naruto looked tired, but clearly wasn't as exhausted as the other two even it he was holding the alert Sasuke who was keeping an eye around their surroundings, looked as he had been looking for the past few days. He looked tired, weak and frail considering his damaged state and Sakura really couldn't imagine him as a threat when he was in such a state that he could barely move. It was like how Kakashi was during the start of their Wave mission. But Sasuke still had the energy to stay alert and keep an eye out for them as they continued to run. He specifically kept his eyes on the water at their feet for water jutsu. His continued survival was in their hands and if he wanted to finish his… quest of death and destruction he'd have to help them before he could betray them.

Sakura mentally cried out in frustration as she felt the water brush over her feet as she continued in her run. Land was so close but so far away from them. It wasn't fair, she was so tired she was barely keeping on the water. If they had had the strength and time maybe they could have used the raft but now it was the time to run. It was the time to run and her energy was falling short on her. A glance around showed that not even Sai was sinking as far as she was in to the water. But the pinched look on his face along with the sweat showed that there was some effort being used to keep afloat.

Sai, at her side, shot ahead then. No longer a jog but a full out sprint. It was an act of desperation and she could understand it. She was desperate too. She soon followed with Naruto bringing up the rear of their little train. They were so close to land now, Sakura could practically smell the greenery from this far out on the water. It was mixed in with the stinging salt but she could still smell it. Greenery was something she could, they all could, work with—they were Hidden Leaf ninja. If they could get in to it, they would most likely live.

They needed to get off the water fast before any of the ninjas tailing them grew a brain and decided to take to the water as a faster way of transport. She was sure that there were a lot of water summons that could be used. Even as her mind frantically went over the possibilities of their pursuers potentially extensive arsenals (were they even Mist ninjas?) they were steadily gaining closer to the land.

It was also just getting that much harder to stay on the water when the ocean under their feet was rolling up in waves. And they were big waves. Up ahead was a small cliff face with a few trees scattered on top of it from what she could see. She ignored the feeling of a wave crashing over her legs as she dashed after Sai. Concentrating solely on the pasty boy's black clad back. Soon they were at the cliffs and dashing up the side. Sakura's mind eased slightly when the strain of standing on water eased away.

Sakura was gasping harshly when they reached the top. Finally on solid land! They all paused for a moment to catch their second wind. Sai was bent over with his hands on his knees. His eyes were closed at the moment. Sakura turned to Naruto. He was slightly hunched forward, one eye shut and puffing harshly. She was a bit envious because Naruto wasn't gasping like Sai and herself. But that was Naruto for you, Sakura thought fondly before she turned her attention to Sasuke.

With one hand holding on to the back of Naruto's jacket, he was balanced perfectly for looking behind them at their approaching enemies. Sakura was thankful, if but a bit wary over how much they were starting to rely on Sasuke now. But he needed them and they needed more eyes.

It was less then a minute before they all started to move at a silent signal. Soon, they were from a sparsely tree infested environment to a full out forest. The air became hotter the further in they got. It became hotter and staler and darker. The trees became bigger. They became so big that the trunks were wider then most of the big buildings from Konoha. They became so tall that the first branches were several meters above their heads. The forest floor was coated with dead branches and leaves.

The only noises the forest made was rustling leaves. But that was faint from the forest floor. They had run for some time before they all took to the trees. Running up the giant trunks, taking care not to damage the foreign trunks lest the following ninjas correctly guess their paths. They turned and started to head right of their original direction. They were so high off the floor now that it seemed a world away from the huge branches they were jumping on. Eventually they started to slow down.

Soon enough, they had stopped entirely on one of the larger tree branches.

Naruto crouched down and eased Sasuke off near the base of the tree where the branch connected to it. Sasuke was still silent to them even if he was very alert and conscious of his surroundings. Naruto plopped down at Sasuke's feet with a tired grin. He absently scratched at one of the whisker marks at his face before he looked to Sai and Sakura.

Sakura had stretched out on to her side on the branch tiredly. She was so glad the branch was so long and sturdy and thick. It didn't even move under their combined weights. It was amazing that there were trees like this. But even now she couldn't find real appreciation for any of the forest life. She was more concerned about their lives. She turned to Sai, the only one in their group that was still standing. He nodded faintly before he quickly jumped up and propelled himself upwards to the tiptop of the tree to covertly have a look around.

This couldn't be a world made entirely of forests, right?

Sakura closed her eyes and consciously worked to ease her muscles. Everything was achy and sore and she hadn't had a bath in ages. The smell of salt and ocean clung to her clothes and it was clogging up her sense of smell. Taking a few more deep breaths she opened up her eyes to see that Sai had already joined them. He was crouched down in the small space between Naruto and Sakura. He glanced to the two of them, still ignoring Sasuke, he spoke, "ahead of us in the distance are mountains that stretch either way as far as I can see and the ocean we came in at is far behind us." Sai took a moment to motion to both directions as he said that.

"To our right and behind us from this position is just more forest that, after several leagues seems to mellow out in to glades and in the very far distance turns to rocks. To the left is the ocean." Sai finished, leaning back slightly on his heels after he finished.

Sakura frowned before she moved her tired body and sat up. This rest was going to end soon. They couldn't stay anywhere near this area. She looked to Sai and Naruto for a moment, evaluating them. Naruto looked tired but fit to travel. His stamina was notoriously long and Sakura envied him for it. Even though he was injured only a short time ago he was still working so efficiently. Sai looked exhausted, the shadows under his eyes were something Sakura supposed were on her own face. Sai wasn't going to last as long as Naruto, and Sakura knew that neither would she.

Sai had turned to Naruto and waited for the orange and black clad ninja to speak. Naruto rolled his shoulders and looked between the two nervously. He even glanced over his shoulder to Sasuke only to find that he had closed his eyes. Naruto didn't know if he was asleep or not but the bastard still hadn't said anything to him yet. Naruto gritted his teeth before looking back to his teammates. Raising a clenched fist he spoke, "we have to keep going. We need to get somewhere where we can rest.. and food." Then needed to find something.

"The vegetation here is unknown…" Sakura spoke for the first time in a long time and found that her throat was kind of scratchy. "We can't experiment with it now. We have to hunt animals and I haven't seen any yet." Naruto frowned at her, he hadn't really been looking for animals but now that she mentioned it…

This forest was awfully quiet. The hush that he now noticed was bringing up his paranoia levels. For all of them, their paranoia was rising now that they remembered exactly where they were—this was a very alien place.

"Sai… how did you know of this… continent?" Sakura spoke and Naruto gave them both a confused glance. Sai closed his eyes for a moment before he shook his head.

"Oh.." So he couldn't even answer that?

A silence drifted over them for a little while as they continued to rest. Sai eventually sat down properly before he leaned on Sakura's shoulder so he could lean against something. He quickly closed his eyes, resting as much as he could. Sakura made sure to stay as still as possible. From the way she saw it, they would be carrying Sasuke for a while, and since Naruto had the best stamina then he would be the one designated to carry their injured.

If they wanted to keep moving, Sakura knew that they would have to work in shifts with breaks. And she and Sai would have to help each other. Since they were the weaker pair they would have to switch more often as they ran and if they switched off they could both have periods of total rest. It was a bit unfair to Naruto but they wouldn't be able to go for long if they didn't do it.

Sakura looked upwards at the leaves and branches overhead. The treetops were so thick that she couldn't even see the sky through the many layers that existed overhead. But even she knew that night was coming. It was dark before, in the forest. The lack of direct light proved it so. But under the cover of darkness…

"We're going to head over the mountains." Sakura said finally, her eyes had zeroed in on the sleeping Sasuke. Sai shifted before he sat up. Obviously done with his rest. Neither Sai nor Naruto spoke as they waited for her to go on.

"Not only are the mountains a natural barrier.. but we need to get as far away from the ocean as possible." Sakura added. They needed to get as far away from the known entry point as they could. They may be going to a harsher environment but they could risk it. Because if there was enough distance and space between them and their pursuers then the chances of them ever being found would diminish drastically.

Naruto nodded his head, before he lowered it to look at his hands. "Guys… if they manage to catch up with us… I…" Naruto trailed off and clenched his hands together.

This was all his fault.

Sakura nodded, "you're right, Naruto." Naruto's head jerked up to give her a disbelieving stare. She gave the other an easy smile, "should they catch up we should split in to groups. Our meeting point will be… anywhere behind that mountain. How are your tracking skills?" She looked to Sai and Naruto as she added the question.

Naruto just laughed to himself. Of course… of course they couldn't see his apology. But the more he looked to them, the more he could swear he saw the acceptance and friendship shining through. Even if it was his fault that they were being hunted down.

"Dickless here isn't as good of a tracker as me. But then again its easy to track him, hag." Sakura and Naruto both pulled a face at Sai and shook their fists at the smiling boy. Sakura even went so far as to yank him around by his half-vest. Eventually, they calmed down from their brief moment of drama. Sai had done it, the tension that had been building eased away and they focused on the problem at hand.

Sakura took Sai in to account and spoke her verbal agreement, "if we get separated, Sai will track everyone down. That means you're not allowed to die." She added, jabbing a finger in to his arm and enjoying his wince just a bit too much to be normal. "Everyone has to make sure to lose whoever is following them. It doesn't matter how far we have to go, lose them. And it doesn't matter how far we go, because you have to find us, Sai." Sai nodded his head in acceptance of the task.

".. Sakura should take Sasuke if we get split like that." Naruto finally said, looking straight at the medic-nin. "After all, he isn't in the best condition." Sakura had looked like she was going to protest, but when he added that she went quiet. Sai looked between the two and he shrugged. "Fine with me."

And the matter was dropped as quickly as it came about.

"We'll talk about any… local people or animals we find later. We need to move." Sakura added as she pushed herself up. She rubbed at her thighs irritably. They felt dirty and after the rest it bothered her a little bit. But she could ignore it for now. She brushed off her rear and stretched.

Naruto was hauling Sasuke back on as Sakura turned to Sai to tell the boy of her idea for their pairing. Even as she turned, Sai touched her arm and spoke. "Sakura, since it would be best if we conserved energy, I.." Sakura quickly motioned for him to quiet down and she smiled to the slightly taller guy. "I know, I had that idea too." Sai nodded before he moved and turned his back to her.

So, he had the first shift carrying. Sakura easily climbed on to his back. Placing her hands lightly on his shoulders she held on.

"You're heavy, hag."

"Shut up, pasty bastard."

Naruto snorted and came in to step next to them. Naruto grinned at them before he leaped forward, his chakra infused jump taking him to the next tree with Sai only slightly behind him. The rest had been longer then Sakura had intended, but Sai had plenty of energy now it seemed. She rested her head on his shoulder and forced her tense body to relax. She didn't like being carried.

Forcing her eyes shut, she made herself rest. She needed the energy; she was going to be running at night with Sai on her back after all.

* * *

The switch was made some hours later and Sakura was happy to note that she felt more rested then before. But the feeling of being heavily drained remained with them still. They were all hungry even if they ignored it. She had taken a moment to inspect Sasuke's condition and even she had heard his growling stomach.

They were quickly growing weak with hunger and Sakura didn't know what they were going to do about it. And it seemed as if she was the only one that was actually worrying about it even though it was a problem they shared.

Their switch had taken place at a river they had found in the woods. It wasn't specifically a harsh river to cross without water walking. It was fast enough to create foam in some places, though. None of them had showed much dignity with the water as they quickly shoved their heads under and sucked as much as they could down without getting much of a belly ache. Naruto ended up helping Sasuke with a little too much enthusiasm with the fresh water. Sasuke ended up practically growling at Naruto—there were no words, that guy was still keeping his silence.

Sakura herself happily soaked her head in the water. Even if the water was chilly to an extreme she soaked her hair and washed her face. The water would help get rid of the oil that was clinging to her. It would also help fade away some of the smell of civilization from her. She knew that the others were more used to the wild.

And they were boys.

Her scented shampoo and conditioners were no help her. She couldn't smell them too well over the clinging ocean smells but hopefully the water would help the quick fading of the cherry blossom scent. She stilled slightly, the bare fingers of her hands threading through her wet hair to move the short strands out of her face. Rock Lee had gotten her those hair care products since he said they smelled really good. She had been training diligently in the hospital at the time… Sakura quickly squashed the feeling of regret and dried her hands on her clothes.

Carefully pulling her gloves on, she motioned Sai over to her. Sakura made a face when she realized that the other's front was wet with water but she didn't comment on that. As the other climbed on, she adjusted to the new weight with a smirk.

"You're such a fat ass, Sai."

"Shut up, hag."

Naruto just snickered at them as he pulled Sasuke on to his back again. Sasuke hadn't been protesting the way he was being carried around. Sakura supposed it was because he wanted to live and knew that he was in bad condition.

Once their groups were ready, they quickly crossed the river and carried on. The trees were getting thinner now. They were younger trees, shorter trees. The dirt was starting to show up in some spots instead of being a thick carpet of tree shedding. They stuck to the trees, though. Sticking to them like spiders stuck to walls. It was harder to leave a track to follow when they didn't touch the ground. As long as Naruto didn't expand too much chakra to the point where he left imprints, then they would be fine.

Sakura had something of a difficult time adjusting to the light levels. She hadn't really been on many night visions before. She was so accustomed to the bright lights of the hospital that this darkness was hard. It would have been better if they had some stars or a moon to light the way even if that was dangerous as well. Even if her eyesight wasn't the best, she still relied on her ears.

While during the day she had run alongside of everyone else, now she followed Naruto's path. She used her ears and her senses to fall in to step after her teammate. Naruto had always had better night vision when they were younger. Even better then Sasuke, although the younger Sakura had always avidly denied that. She felt, safer, following after Naruto like this.

It was better to focus on Naruto then on the pasty boy on her back. Sai had fallen asleep, but his face was pressed against the back of her neck. That most likely had to do with the fact that her shoulders were narrow and small and there was nowhere else. But it was giving her the creeps, slightly. Even though she knew he was asleep… it was putting her on edge, feeling someone's breath down the back of her neck.

But still, they continued on.

And they ran right in to their ambush.

* * *

They had reached the end of the thick forest. They could easily see the mountains from the ground since the trees had thinned out to a rare occurrence. Though, their group stayed near the biggest tree cluster for a little while as they took a rest. Or, really it was Naruto taking a rest because he had been running the longest.

Sakura leaned against one of the trees in the cluster, feeling the strange bark and examining it. It smelled of something sweet and when she climbed up and picked at the trunk out of sight, a liquid had oozed out. She had tasted it just out of curiosity and realized what it was. It tasted different, definitely strange but it was syrup. She stared at it for a moment, the kunai she had used to mar the tree sat comfortably in her hand as she debated with herself. Her belly ached and even if it wasn't food this might make it a bit happy. Hopefully no one would have a bad reaction to it. It didn't take too long to harvest a bit for everyone and the idea of something in their stomachs other then water excited the group.

No one helped Sasuke eat because his left arm worked just fine. Sakura watched him as he reclined against one of the trees with his broken right arm curled against his stomach and his currently useless legs splayed out in front of himself. His sandals were damaged to the point that it was impossible to repair them. They'd have to find him something.. eventually. His eyes were still black and still focused on the glob of sickly sweet syrup that Sakura had produced. It was sitting on a dirty leaf but really… not a single one of them were really picky at this point.

Naruto bumped shoulders with Sakura, making her look up from Sasuke to the blond at her side. He smiled down at her in a silent thanks before he stood up and stretched out his limbs. It wasn't much, this energy that they would have for the moment. But for now they'd be able to make a great distance. Sasuke was the last to finish up and Naruto impatiently hauled the other up again.

While Sakura did want to explore the plant life around them, it was time to go. She could explore later.

Sai motioned Sakura away when she approached him to continue to carry him. Sai didn't say anything, but Sakura supposed that he was too awake to rest for now. Once they were all on their feet, they headed out. They moved from tree cluster to cluster with Sakura leading the way and Sai managing the back. This was done so that Sakura could set the pace and because Naruto was carrying their injured.

Running in a line wasn't hard and as the sky lightened up more and more Sakura started to feel more relieved. If they hadn't found them yet when they had gotten this far, then they should be fine, shouldn't they?

Inner Sakura screamed and cursed even as Sakura started to relax more and more. They were safe now, right?

The senbon that shot through her legs told her otherwise as she went down hard with a strangled gasp. The muscles in her legs already freezing up and she quickly looked down her body to the large metal needles sticking out of her calf muscles. Four of them, two of the needles in each leg in a giant 'x' pattern—this wasn't just a simple disabling method, they had cut her muscles! Sakura paled as her eyes raised to Naruto's face as he jolted to a halt, her name on his mouth before he jerked around to look behind them even as Sai deflected more of the incoming needles with the tantō he had pulled off of his back.

Naruto dropped Sasuke to the ground, he landed with a harsh grunt on his back before he sat up next to Sakura's legs. Naruto yanked two of the remaining handful of shurikens from his left thigh hostler. He held them expertly between his first two fingers even as his right hand pulled out a kunai. Naruto and Sai had quickly jumped to either side of where Sasuke and Sakura laid in the dirt even as their pursuers surrounded them.

Five ninjas from Hidden Mist and two from their own hidden village—seeing the leaf headbands on their foreheads felt like a cold stone had been dropped in to her stomach and it made Sakura aware that her headband was still proudly displayed on the top of her head. That Naruto still had his own on his forehead, that Sai was wearing it as well. They were wearing their headbands even now when they had no right to.

The Kirigakure ninjas that had arrived hovered around the edges as the two ninjas from Konoha edged around them, coming to a stop several feet from where they were gathered. One of them was wearing the traditional ANBU mask the cloak while the other was adorned with a simple jounin vest. It was a wonder why the jounin commander wasn't the one to hunt them down.

But Shikaku Nara wasn't there.

Naruto's eyes were focused on the Konohagakure ninja while Sai surveyed the five Kirigakure ninja. The jounin wasn't someone they recognized personally but Sakura could remember treating the man a few times for broken bones. Because of the lack of personal interest Sai inspected the five around them.

Definitely Kirigakure ninja—they were all so fond of bandages and dark clothing. Sai's face remained mostly emotionless, but the look in his eyes said another story entirely. Sai was very nervous.

All of the Kirigakure Ninja were ones he recognized from the photos he had been given in training. They were all very experienced and very well trained ninja. All of them specialized in assassination and many forms of silent killing. Naruto didn't seem to care, though, he was showing off his teeth to the jounin who was staring down at them.

Sakura almost screamed when one of the needles in her legs jumped from a burning sensation to pure pain. She looked to them to find that Sasuke had touched one even as he glared at her. The scowl on his face was fierce but Sakura wasn't cowed, she was closer to being pissed that he had dared to touch something that had hurt so much, the bastard! Sakura would have said something, but Sasuke hissed at her first.

"Fix yourself, woman!" His voice was thick and raspy and almost pained. He sounded nothing like himself, not that Sakura really knew what he sounded like now because the only time she had really heard him speak was when they had gone to Orochimaru's base and found him at the top of the exploded area.

Sakura tensed, glaring at the other before turning to her legs. Chakra soon lined her fingers as she reached out to carefully pull the needles out. The senbon were longer then the ones she had used before, but she didn't see the harm in using them in this fight. Her blood was already starting to pump loudly in her ears. A fight was to commence soon and she had some tension to fight off. Sasuke watched her with an unreadable expression before turning to the jounin as he cleared his throat.

"By order of the Rokudamie, for attempted assassination…" The man started, dark eyes flat as he surveyed them all. Sakura hurried herself in removing the remaining senbon as she curled her right, senbon free leg to her chest. She had to be careful, always careful when dealing with ninja who used senbon. They knew how to make the most brutal attacks with the least effort. "Uchiha Sasuke is to be put to death. For helping missing-nin Uchiha in escape and turning away from their own village, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Sai—"

Naruto jerked forward with a snarl, the shuriken snapping out of his fingers with a sharp flick of his wrist. Even though he had thrown them, he dived forward with the kunai ready to be plunged in to the jounin's body. And if not that he looked ready to claw the man to death. The man easily deflected the shuriken and pulled out his katana.

_"Kage bushin no jutsu!"_

Sakura was up on her feet even as twenty more people popped in to existence on the new battleground. Naruto had multiplied once again to use his infamous tactic. Beat the enemy in to a pulp as fast as you can. With the senbon in hand, Sakura jumped to her right, the spot she had occupied soon became littered with multiple ninja weapons. Two Kirigakure ninja soon descended upon her.

The clones had generally disbursed amongst the field but that didn't stop two of the ninja from falling on to her. A man and a woman descended and Sakura didn't have much time to examine them as she continued to dodge the hail of weapons. She had seen this type of technique before and assumed that one of the two was a weapons master.

And even though she could recognize the attack didn't mean she could dodge everything. Senbon needles were quickly flying through the air, those were easier to dodge then the shuriken that soon followed. Sakura gasped and stumbled when two landed on her left thigh and one bounced off her hip.

She didn't have time to stop to heal from such a non-serious wound.

Ducking under a blade from the man, Sakura shot out her leg and used it to spin her body around so she could get to his side. She moved to shove the senbon she was using up and in to his ribs but his knee quickly connected to her face and sent her flying up in to the air.

Landing on her feet, Sakura back flipped over the potentially lethal stab of a katana from the woman. Her feet didn't get the chance to touch the ground again as the man landed a hit to her stomach and sent her in to the ground. Sakura landed on her back, bounced and rolled. Coming to a stop she moved on to her knees quickly and sent a chakra covered fist in to the ground.

The ground here was softer then their homeland and the ground didn't jut out. But the ground shook and seemed to explode from the inside. It gave Sakura the time she needed to cock back her hand and send two of the senbon flying. The woman dodged the one for her face but didn't have time to stop the one that targeted her crotch. Sakura grinned as she went down with a surprised cry.

No holding back for this.

Another senbon was sent toward the man who merely deflected it as he jumped off the newly misshapen ground. His sword was pulled back in a stabbing motion, the handle firm in his right hand with his left hand behind the handle to give it more force.

He didn't even land as several kunai made a home in his head. He was dead before he hit the ground and Sakura was long gone from where she had kneeled.

Her hesitation was small before she barreled in to the woman on the ground. She had sat up just in time for Sakura to land on her chest, forcing her back to the ground and the breath out of her lungs. Digging her feet in to the woman's arms, Sakura used the last borrowed senbon to stab the woman in her throat. She jerked and Sakura yanked it out.

If she had been in a less humanistic state and was more vindicative she might have enjoyed the fountain of blood. She could understand why these two had been good, but they had focused on the wrong aspects. She raised her eyes to Sasuke as he harvested more weapons from where they littered the spot next to him. She didn't know what to make of his help… but she accepted it. Stealing the woman's weapon pouch, Sakura jumped up and ran back to Sasuke's side.

She had to protect their invalid. Which meant she couldn't waste any chakra on her swelling face or on the gashes and scratches she had gotten in her short fight. Once at Sasuke's side, she surveyed Naruto and Sai. Even as she did so, Naruto made clones and the person she thought was Sai turned in to a puddle of ink when a Kirigakure ninja stabbed him. Said ninja was quickly kicked in the back for the attack.

Sai looked like he was taking care, and with good reason. Sasuke had killed one Kirigakure ninja and Sakura herself and eliminated one. There were three left. Well, there was one dead on the ground with his head cut off which meant there were two. Only one Kirigakure ninja was visible, the one hounding after Sai.

Naruto was making a right mess with the two Konoha ninja. The ANBU agent had taken over the fight with the jounin providing cover fire. And he wasn't missing. Naruto's copies were going down quicker the lightning. He wasn't even bothering with dodging as he continued to attack. He was forgoing jutsu and tactics and everything. He just swung with his clawed hands and snarled—the look of pure rage on his face made Sakura's knees lock.

And then the jounin found the real Naruto when the blond took a kunai to the shoulder and didn't disappear. The ANBU quickly focused on the real Naruto with a fire jutsu which he had the mind to dodge. But that jounin was a problem. Sakura knew she had to help and didn't think about the hand that shoved her forward. But before she knew it she was running, a kunai in hand that was out and ready to be thrown.

That cold stone appeared in her stomach again. She suddenly felt too heavy as her vision tunneled down to focus purely on the jounin. She was going to attack someone from her own village. Someone she had healed. Her gloved fingers clenched over the expertly wrapped handle of the kunai as her heart thudded in her ears and time seemed to slow.

This was what would cement it. In doing this act she would be officially cutting her ties to her home. Even if they had already cut off their affiliation with her she had still called Konoha home in her mind and soul. The world blurred but she didn't really need her sight to throw.

In doing this, she was officially cutting her bonds with that village.

With that home.

All because of Sasuke, the traitorous bastard.

Her heart ached and a cold sweat broke out over her body as she ignored whatever it was that ripped in to her side. This wasn't being done for Sasuke anymore!

_I'm going to help you, Naruto!_

And the kunai flew out of her hand with chakra enhanced speed. She watched as that single kunai had enough force to almost completely lop off the jounin's head. The world blurred and she quickly found herself tossed away. The pain in her side quickly flared and became overpowering as she landed and skidded on the ground once again.

By the time she found the strength to open her eyes again, a harsh kick to the shoulder turned her on to her back and she stared up at the Kirigakure ninja that towered above her, his feet at both of her shoulders. She couldn't see his eyes behind the goggles that he wore and his lower face was hidden and her insides twisted as time slowed again as the sword plunged down..

She couldn't breath, she couldn't move!

She was going to die.

An ink lion like creature clamped its jaws around the man and tore him away as he screamed and screamed and the lion mauled and mauled.

Sakura rolled on to her side and shook. She was cold and she was hot and she couldn't breath. Her chest heaved as her wide eyes roamed the area around her, focusing on Sai as he jumped down in front of her and hauled her up on to her feet.

He quickly punched her in the face and it was enough to knock her out of it, she staggered but she could breath again. Choking every so often, but Sakura still breathed. She looked up to his anxious eyes before looking down to her torn up side. Her left side was quickly soaking and it didn't take but a moment to wrap a hasty bandage over the gash and spend a bit of chakra to make the wound less serious. Sai helped her even as they listened to Naruto's battle.

It didn't sound like he was losing.

Sai patted her side and ignored her flinch before he stood and looked down at her. "Take Uchiha and go. There are more coming." He grabbed her shoulder and she almost moaned in pain, it was the limb that man had kicked so harshly. She didn't protest because of it as he quickly shoved her toward Sasuke. "We need to split. Don't stop." They couldn't fight like this, even if Sakura wasn't cataloging Sai's wounds, she did notice that the other was strangely bloody and hunched over slightly.

"I'll find you both. Run."

Sakura's sluggish brain mumbled that she needed to fix him before it went in to overdrive.

She stumbled over to Sasuke and hastily hauled the other on to her back. Ignoring his grunts of pain at the callous handling she was giving him, she looked to Sai who, with anxious eyes, smiled at her before turning to Naruto's battle and moving to help.

The distance between them was small now, but the distance in her mind had grown.

Her grip on Sasuke's legs was hard enough to make him shift. She quickly turned away from the battle and ran. She had to get to the other side of the mountains! She wouldn't stop, she wouldn't collapse—she didn't have the time to dally because she had to move. Sprinting almost dangerously fast, she quickly moved over the grass. The clusters of trees were disappearing in favor of a more rocky terrain even though up ahead she could see that there was another forest to enter long before she reached the mountains.

Ignoring the shuriken in her legs and her bleeding side she moved. She'd take a blood replenishing pill a bit when she became too dizzy. Then she would fix herself up a bit more at that point. Till then… all she could do was run.

Even though the sounds of the battle faded from her ears, it didn't fade from her heart.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is separated and having issues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Re-post of Chapter 2.

**Chapter 2  
**

Sakura couldn't stop the shaking in her body. She guessed that the cold of the high mountains might be the cause but she doubted that it was the whole reason to the shaking. The only warmth that she had was at her back, and only because Sasuke was pressed against her. Sasuke was shaking too, but he had remained silent.

She almost wanted the other to say something. To hear something in the thudding silence of the mountain amongst her panting breaths. The air was too thin and it made travel difficult to even someone as physically fit, albeit injured, as her. She was a ninja of Fire Nation, it wasn't a place with any considerable mountains. At least, not like the one she was on. The mountains were littered with loose rocks and she had already slipped twice and torn up her knees. They hadn't hurt for long. She almost wanted Sasuke to say something about how hard she was pushing herself, to stop her from continuing like this, to tell her to take a rest and fix herself…

But that wasn't _Sasuke_. That was the _idealized_ Sasuke that never existed.

Sakura fell again.

Her feet slipped out from under her body from all of the loose rocks of the mountain and without the energy to right herself she fell on their collective asses. Sasuke grunted when he landed, his arms loosening from their place around her neck. They had just passed the highest point of the mountain, and the clouds obscured her vision of the nighttime view of their unknown destination. Sakura tiredly tilted her head up and looked at the half moon that was in the sky. It gave just enough light for her trained eyes to see in the darkness—or as far as her trained eyes could see in the darkness given that her eyesight in the darkness was poorer then some.

Were Naruto and Sai looking at the same moon that she could see? Or were they face down and broken while ANBU hacked their bodies apart? They could be dead and she would never know unless she turned around right then and went back? What if they were hurt and their only chance of survival was her? And she was here, fleeing for her life while those two… while those two…

She had never wanted to see anyone's backs again. She never wanted to be the one standing back and watching everyone else do their hardest while she did only nothing. That was why she had worked to become strong—and she had worked so damn hard. Naruto and Sasuke's backs had seemed so far—they had just seemed so superior and strong to her back when she was young. Back before Sasuke had abandoned the village and back before Naruto had gone on that mission to get Sasuke back. They were still strong now, but she had felt that they were more on equal terms. Even when Sai had entered the picture she had felt the equality, the acknowledgement that she, too, was strong.

And then they told her to run and she _ran_.

She felt Sasuke shift away but didn't stop him as he moved his injured body away from her own. He couldn't go far, not with the condition his body was in. And she couldn't go far with her own condition without some type of rest either. Sakura's gaze moved from the rocks around them to her gloved hands.

The dried blood that was on her face and neck itched—she had been splashed when she had torn up that Kirigakure ninja. Sakura brought the rough fingers of her gloves to her face and pulled the material down over the itchy skin as she imagined that she was simply at home, washing off some soap from her face that for some reason, didn't want to come off. She couldn't fall far in to her fantasy, the chill in her body followed by the throbs of her wounds kept her in the present.

She couldn't get enough air.

"Haruno… fix me. I'll carry you." Sakura jerked, turning to look at Sasuke. He still didn't sound like himself. He sounded pained and exhausted and breathy and he wasn't looking at her. His head was tilted to the left, black eyes focused on to the surrounding mountain tips. Sakura's hands lowered from her face and landed almost too loudly on to the rocky ground underneath them. His knees were still pressing against her sides and she couldn't see his expression because he really was avoiding looking at her…

His head turned minutely and they connected eyes… and she found that they were still as unreadable as when they had met in Orochimaru's layer. Her hands tightened in to fists in the ground as they continued to stare and she continued to look for something…

Ignoring the pain, she turned her body and faced him on her hands and knees between Sasuke's legs that has been pressing against her sides from where she had let go of them, eyes wide as she continued to stare, never once breaking the contact. His face was flat and looked pasty in their current lighting and her inner self venomously denied that he almost looked like Sai. Sakura didn't care an ounce for what she looked like as she drew her lips back and snarled.

He didn't even flinch. Sakura didn't know if she was disappointed or not.

"You… You can't _even_ …" She didn't know what she was trying to say and she didn't know what she was looking for in the other's eyes. The words were hard, as if there was some kind of blockage in her throat that was stopping her words even though she was breathing without a hindrance besides the thinness in the air. "We… _So_ much was…" Her eyes burned but she didn't feel a single tear well up in her eyes, as all she could focus on were his eyes.

She could see herself looking back out of his eyes. Pitiless, dark eyes that she didn't know how she could have imagined were dreamy and romantic. They were sharp, a prickly edge that effectively warded off anyone that would bother him—maybe it was a cruelness to realize that Sasuke's eyes had always been this way. Or, really, there had been moments when the other was almost friendly, but that had been far and few and only when they were children. She felt the painful edges of rocks dig in to her torn up knees and felt dulled edges through the gloves on her hands as she leaned in toward Sasuke.

It wasn't fair.

She wanted to dig out his precious eyes and scream _have you had enough, was it worth it you piece of…!_ She wanted to make him cry blood for all the pain he had caused Team Seven! She wanted him to repent and feel sorry and guilty and she wanted _SHE WANTED—!_

She didn't want Naruto to die to keep this promise. Sasuke and Naruto's lives were not of equal value.

_… she only wanted them both… to live!_

Sakura stilled as she suddenly felt the hands that were in her hair tighten to something that would have been painful if she could feel her cold numbed body. Her eyes cleared and she looked down on the body that she was sitting on, hands clamped down on Sasuke's jaw with her fingers itching toward his spinning red eyes. She slapped a hand over his eyes before she could look too deeply in to them.

She wasn't getting enough air. Sakura dropped her other hand down on to Sasuke's eyes and dropped her head down on to his chest. Her eyes and lungs burned with equal tenacity and she buried her face against his chest. Sasuke's hands gripped her hair with uncertainty and Sakura suddenly felt it.

The weight of an unforgiveable sin sitting on her head amongst her pink hair and the red cloth that held it to place. The symbol that she had sworn to protect was the one she had betrayed. The symbol of hope and fire, or promise and loyalty—but wasn't Kakashi the one who had told them those who abandoned their teammates were trash?

She didn't think Kakashi's words would apply to this… _this violation._

She didn't think it was unforgiveable if she cried, just this once.

She cried and listened to the beatings of their traitorous hearts.

* * *

Sasuke glanced over to Sakura in the afternoon light. He quickly looked away as he brought a hand up to brush his swollen and bruised jaw line. It had hurt immensely and she had refused to heal him—it wasn't a refusal so much as the fact that she wouldn't look at him. Sasuke's natural frown deepened and he glared at the scraggily trees that covered the mountainside.

Sakura had picked him up and carried him a bit further after she had attacked. They had crossed over and down a bit of ways until they had hit tree cover. He had been placed down next to a decently large tree and some bushes and Sakura moved across from him, huddled and turned her back to him as if he wasn't a threat.

Well, he couldn't be a threat to her now, at any rate. His survival depended on her. Grimacing, he resisted the urge to tear at the hard dirt at his sides. They had been at this place since dawn and it was afternoon. He hadn't slept a wink but Sakura had fallen in and out of consciousness from where she sat. Maybe it was a good thing that he hadn't slept, if the enemy had found them they would have been screwed.

The pain in his body kept him awake anyway.

Sasuke eyed the area around them once again with careful, black eyes. He slowly shifted his legs from where they were stretched out over the ground in front of himself. They were too damaged to consider shifting in to a folded position so they had to remain uncomfortably stretched out. His left leg was considerably easier to move and place then his right. His left shin was broken, but it was firmly held in to place by his katana. Sasuke felt a small flicker of amusement at it as his hands brushed the handle of his sword. Really, it was kind of ridiculous that such a long sheath was tied to his leg. But it was better then having something that was too small. At least it wasn't tied to his thigh, he could still bend his knee.

Hearing a noise, Sasuke quickly looked up and pinpointed the source; Sakura. It took him a moment too long to notice that she was making the strange noise that was similar to choking. She was hunched over now, strange, thick noises were muffled by the hands pressed over her face as she rocked herself slightly. She wasn't crying, he could tell. She may as well have been, though.

Sasuke only looked away from her. The memory of last night hadn't cleared away yet.

She didn't seem stable any more. So he focused on himself and his current… problems.

He hadn't had much energy to move around for a while. Especially since he had woken up, he had been so tired. What little energy he had gained he had wasted when Sakura had turned on him and he had brought his eyes out. His stomach groaned and gnawed at him from the inside. Sasuke's eyebrows drew together as he frowned at nothing in particular. He was starving. He inspected his bound and splinted right ankle and decided to leave it alone.

His right arm was going to be a problem. While he could use both arms in combat, he favored that arm. Well, he favored it when using his katana. But his forearm, closer to the wrist then to the elbow, held the broken bone. It was in constant pain; even he could tell that it wasn't a clean break. He grimaced and tucked his right arm against his body. He glanced toward Sakura again, for what felt like the fiftieth time, to see if she was going to do something before he looked away again.

Using his left hand, he folded the collar of his shirt further up so as to stay high around his neck. His shirt was no longer white. It was more brown then white with plenty of rips and stains of dried old blood on it. He didn't carry extra clothes. Whenever they got this damaged he just had his teammates grab some new ones. The fingers of his left hand tightened on his collar.

_Team Taka…_

Sasuke's face twisted in to something pained. What had happened to them?

How was he going to be able to continue his mission when he didn't have any cover?

He needed to reach his goal, but he wasn't so self absorbed to think that he'd be able to accomplish the destruction of Danzo and Konoha on his own. Even if he fully expected that he, himself, would draw out the much needed revenge out of Danzo. No one was allowed to kill Danzo but someone who understood the suffering that man had created!

He remembered something of his last moments, his last stretches of consciousness before he ended up on the ocean. He remembered that for a time there had been a person, a woman, at his side. He suspected that it was Karin. Everything was so hazy, he suspected a head injury; but it was pointless pondering about it if he couldn't remember it. He had to deal with his current situation, which was less then ideal.

He brushed his greasy, matted hair away from his face with his left hand before he looked up to the sky. The small trees in this area but they weren't as vibrant as the trees that they had passed on the other side of the mountain. Already, it was easy to tell that this terrain was different. Even the air tasted different. Without the salt in the air, the heady woodland smell was prominent. Or, the woodland smell and swept up from further along the mountain which was why they, so high up, could smell it so well even to their foreign noses.

It had truly been ages since he had noticed the smell of woods. He had never really paid it much mind before, but then he had abandoned his village and settled in to a new hidden village and secret bases dug in to the earth and in to stone.

Wood and stone smelt so different from each other.

From as far as could be seen from the mountains that morning, this place was a green wonderland. Sasuke understood that Sakura didn't know where she was going regardless of the fact that she was really trying to make it seem like she knew where to go. That bothered Sasuke, it bothered him a lot—this was uncharted territory. Having originally woken on a boat with nothing but water for as far as the eye could see, even he could understand that they weren't in the Elemental Countries anymore.

And he was once again further from his objective.

He was far from his team, his goal, his end… Reviving the Uchiha clan was a dream of the past. He, in the end, understood that no such thing was going to come of it. Even if he did decide to continue to pass on his blood limit, he wouldn't return to Konoha. The village of weaklings and traitors—clenching his fists and ignoring the pain in his wrist, he turned and glared at Sakura.

It was all Naruto and Sakura's fault. They wanted him to reform and join their mists again. But they couldn't possibly understand him. Oh, he was bitter, beyond bitter, really. They were just so naïve, to believe that he could return to the place that had ordered the death of his entire clan. To the place that had forced his big brother… his brother… to kill his own family—Itachi had even been ordered to kill Sasuke, all for the 'good of the village'. And then Itachi was supposed to kill himself. That had been the plan, that had been the orders… but things had changed… Clenching his eyes shut, Sasuke took in a shuddering breath, shook his painful thoughts away and tried to figure where he had gone wrong in his attack.

And he tried not to dwell on Itachi. His brother's pain… and his will… Sasuke roughly cleared his wandering mind again and did something that came easily enough—he thought of himself and how to become closer to his objective in life.

Revenge against the Kages (which, in turn, brought revenge against Danzo, because he would definitely make sure to kill that bastard)—those were the first two goals. He wished to accomplish them before he moved on to destroy Konoha entirely.

Where he had gone wrong...

He had been too full of himself and the Raikage had beaten the shit out of him.

He had gone on ahead… and had gotten more of his ass kicked. The second time was by a woman.

Sasuke squinted his eyes open. He needed to train his new eyes, his new abilities better. He didn't have the experience of the Kages. If he wasn't even able to get one of them while merely fighting one on one, who knows what Danzo might do on his own since he was also one of the five Kages of the Elemental Countries. What could Danzo do on his own? Karin's intelligence on him had been weak. Everything was hush-hush about the man who had become the new Hokage after Tsuande was taken out. Or, maybe the information hadn't been so hushed up so much as he had been too enraged to properly taken in the information. Even know, hundreds of millions of miles away from the man, his blood burned and his body ached for vengeance.

The Uchiha was brought out of his musings by the sudden quiet from his old teammate.

Sakura was facing him, somewhat. Her back to her tree now, she leaned against it tiredly with her legs stretched out limply in front of her body. Something was off about her appearance and it took a moment for Sasuke to notice what had changed.

She had pulled off her headband. Her hitai-ite rested in her still hands. The crimson cloth was stained and starting to fray almost as if it was a representation of the other's mental state. Sasuke had no doubt that she was on the edge of becoming hysterical, or she had reached that stage and now was contemplating homicide.

If he could walk, or run, he would have ditched her a long time ago.

She was still weak and she still dragged him down. She wouldn't even heal him.

They were losing time, precious time.

The longer he waited, the less time he had to personally kill Danzo before anyone else had the chance.

Opening his mouth to speak now that she wasn't huddled away from him, Sasuke had to pause. She was just staring at her headband for a long moment before she reached out and pulled a kunai from a leg pouch. Setting her hitai-ite down firmly on her lap, her hands started to shake. In fact, her whole body was shaking as she just stared at it. Pale green eyes wide and red rimmed and totally focused on the image of her leaf symbol as if she was devoting the image to her brain. Carving it away for safe keeping for the rest of her life.

Sasuke didn't understand what she was doing till she brought the sharp edge of her kunai on to the metal plate on the headband. The metal sunk in with ease. Sakura slowly dragged the kunai along, the pressure scaring a faintly wavering line over the metal until she reached the stylized leaf. She jerked her arm and shot if off, swinging her arm wide and making the squiggly scratch turn straight and true as she cut her ties.

She calmly returned her headband back to place and placed her kunai back in to her pouch. Her shaking quelled and her lips pressed together in a white, determined line. A few deep breaths and she pulled herself slowly to her feet.

She shouldn't have done that. She had just defaced the symbol of her loyalty. Sasuke had done it years ago when he had cut all the ties in his village. Something burned in the deep cavity of his chest as he watched her step on to the one way road and for some reason, Sakura's voice from so, so long ago that begged him to let her come with him came to his ears. A voice, so feeble and weak with no real heart behind it would have only had gotten in the way. This Sakura had, in silence, cut out some part of her heart and stood stronger for it.

Her face screamed that she had found her resolve once more.

He remembered looking to her and thinking her face was soft but now the clenched, hard facet or her face was anything but soft. Her face was edges and tough planes that surrounded her harsh, determined eyes. Sasuke watched and wondered where the Sakura he remembered went. She was focused now, determined—the instability and weakness just moments ago had been brushed aside as she went through with her abandonment of her home village.

There was no going back for her now. They were in the same boat now, officially. Traitors, deserters, abandoners—there was no turning back for either of them. Even still… even though she had done such a thing, Sasuke wouldn't think too much of it anymore. She was still, in some way, connected to that traitorous place.

She was still the enemy as well. He couldn't forget that. A moment of weakness could cost him his life with her instability. He needed to be fixed…

How had she gotten the will to make the choice?

Neither said a word and she hauled him up again and started to walk.

* * *

Sakura focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Shifting Sasuke's body every so often to keep the circulation in her arms as she made her precarious journey down the side of the mountain. At times she had to jump when the ground turned too steep to walk and sometimes she even had to infuse precious chakra to her feet to walk down a steep wall where the drop was too much to take with a passenger.

The headband burned and the chill from the mountains didn't want to leave her body even as she carried Sasuke to warmer pastures. The further along they moved, the more trees and plant life they encountered and the more oxygen that the plants made. She could breath easy now, physically. It still felt like her throat was too tight, the sensation that came before crying but she was out of tears, she didn't have any more left to give at this point.

Not that she wanted to give them anyway.

As the afternoon descended in to darkness, they had nearly cleared the mountains.

Of course, some distance ahead there were more mountains to climb.

Sakura grimaced, was this whole land made of mountains? She didn't like them much at all, she preferred the warmth and the life of the trees and the plants. Trees so large that their age could be felt just by looking at them, trees so strong that they had survived the wear and tear of ninja life…

Even then, it reminded her a little bit of what home was supposed to feel like. If only she knew which plants were edible, then she would feel a little bit better about her current situation. At this point, she just needed to find some wildlife and do a bit of observing. She needed to find out what could be consumed because running on empty would soon be too dangerous for them. It was already dangerous for Sasuke considering how injured he was.

Traitorously, she added the damages she made to him on the mountain to the long list of injuries that Sasuke had. She could feel the guilt surrounding her actions now. She had just been so consumed with… well, she wasn't too sure at this point, but she had been consumed with something and it had caused more injuries then was needed amongst their group of injured two. They were both in bad shape and if they kept going as they were, they wouldn't survive very long at all.

At least the weather was decently warm during the day, and now that they were further inland there was no ocean cold. Further along the mountains brought them to warmer air. So it was easy to say that whenever they needed to rest, it would be done in between mountains. It would also be there that nature would be at its greatest considering the lovely climate that existed between mountains. Sakura took in a deep breath of fresh air and focused on the task at hand.

She needed to keep Sasuke alive. She needed to make him healthy without killing herself from strain… without hurting Sasuke… without giving Sasuke so much power that their sacrifice was in vain. If Sasuke left her here, now, and tried to return to the Elemental Countries, Sakura couldn't even fathom what she would do in such a situation. She couldn't think on it, so she didn't. As it was, she couldn't risk to heal Sasuke until she was stronger. And to get stronger, she needed nutrients and rest.

Hopefully Sai would find them by then.

If he was still alive.

* * *

As dawn approached, Sakura set Sasuke down amongst thick bushes and trees and laid down beside him to catch a bit of rest. They were both exhausted at this point and neither spoke to the other for a long time.

"… Haruno." Sakura didn't look.

"Fix me."

"… No."

"Why?"

There was only silence for a moment, only for a heartbeat before the automatic answer came.

"Because you're a traitor."

_Because I don't trust you._

"… and so are you."

_I don't trust you either._

The words that exist hidden underneath always spoke a different story.

Silence.

And the sun arose.

* * *

Sakura didn't fix Sasuke that night. Nor in the morning, nor in the afternoon and the next evening found the two going over another mountain in their continued bid of escape. Even if she didn't fix him, she made sure to constantly check over his injuries to make sure that when she did get around to fixing him, that nothing had healed prematurely in a damaging way. To people of their way of life, any sort of damage to their bodies was a very, very bad thing.

They had survived the last few days on gambles but they were both equally paying for it at this point. It was all well that there were streams scattered amongst where they walked, encountering them as they continued to head onward. Plants that the strange wildlife ate, they too chanced to eat them. Along with actually snatching the wildlife itself when they could, they did what they had to, they didn't want to be weakened by hunger or the lack of food, not when there was so much food to be had, even at the risk of being poisoned, it was better then nothing.

Funnily enough, there were creatures in this terrain that were similar to the rabbits and squirrels and rodents of their homeland. There were differences, such as the texture of the fur and the meat, the taste and sometimes the overall appearance. But it was edible, and they ate. They had caught and eaten six rabbits, one nasty bird, three squirrels and the odd fish that happened to show up when they were shoving their faces in to slow moving streams. As ninja, they had been taught how to survive in these conditions. Only they had to gamble with their health on the fact that they didn't know what the animals and plants would do to their different physiology.

Sakura supposed that their physiology would be different from the inhabitants of this land. But then again, maybe they wouldn't be different. Maybe there weren't even any people in this place at all. Maybe it was just an endless dream of forest and animals and plants. Everything was so unmarked, so pristine.

Sakura didn't observe the marks of humans anywhere on the land. She smelled no smoke (not even from their carefully made and brief fires), she heard no voices—all that there was, was the distant cries of animals and the soft rush of the streams that came and went as they continued on. As they continued, Sakura started to fear that maybe in this new land that seemed to stretch on for ages that they, invaders, were the only humans around.

Sasuke wasn't the most talkative person around.

She missed Naruto and Sai.

* * *

Pausing at the top, Sakura looked out ahead and to her surprise the next set of mountains was so far they couldn't even be considered mountains from where they stood. They were more like pointed hills from this distance and the stretching land before them looked welcoming in the full bloom of spring turning to summer. Their current mountain wasn't so high up that the air thinned to being nearly painful. The air was brisk, but the winds brought in a warm draft from the huge valley ahead of them that stretched so far in the distance that Sakura suspected that it wasn't a valley but couldn't bring up the mind to remember the right geographical word for it.

Their stomachs growled and they spotted lights in the far, far distance.

They were ninja, a little stealing wouldn't dirty either of their consciousnesses. It wasn't like either of them were a pure soul, not in their line of work.

There was just something to be thankful for that there were inhabitants on this strange land. Sakura wouldn't get her hopes up for communication. Or for understanding—there was only going to be one use from these people. And that would be to steal from them to ensure their own survival.

Sakura paused, tightening her mental hands around that thought as she shifted her grip on Sasuke's legs. Naruto had been more in her thoughts lately, more then Sai and Sasuke combined. Everything she seemed to think to occupy herself and the silence Sasuke made seemed to focus on the boy. Man, she corrected herself. Naruto wasn't a boy anymore just like she wasn't a girl anymore. They were adults, even if Naruto never did make it past a genin.

But Naruto… she imagined that Naruto had a pure soul. No matter what he had done, Sakura could honestly say that Naruto had never actually out right killed anyone. He may have indirectly caused some deaths, but in the end that guy was always trying to save the people he was fighting. Sakura continued forward, aligning her path to the faint lights in the distance. It was evening, their path was clear.

Naruto was always trying to save everyone.

Sakura bowed her head. She didn't want to admit it, but right now… she could use some saving too. With a smile that was more of a grimace then anything else, Sakura wondered what Naruto did when he needed the saving. That was purely hypothetical, considering that he was always so, so strong.

But he probably did need some kind of saving too. Sakura doubted she'd be strong enough to help.

She wished Naruto were at her side, chatting away as he used to do when they were young. Calling her name and calling for her attention… She sighed and kicked Naruto out of her mind again. She was just desperate to hear another voice. Or, in this situation, she wanted to hear a voice, the man on her back was as silent as the dead. And Sakura knew how quiet the dead were, she had had to work with a few cadavers before in the hospital, back in that place she used to call home.

She shook her head.

She cleared her thoughts.

_And she moved on._

In silence Sakura and Sasuke agreed with each other that another crime to stack upon their own growing lists wouldn't bother either of them. For Sasuke, the idea of theft being considered a crime to his long list of murders was ludicrous and for Sakura, well… she was hungry. There was a reason she hadn't tired to diet for a long, long time.

Not since she wanted to become strong and to become strong… she needed to eat. Dieting was only for girls (not women) who were not serious over their jobs. Ino, as far as Sakura knew, had long since stopped such a silly action as well. They were women now, after all.

With ravenous intent, Sakura walked. She took her time and conserved her energy and knew that at this pace she'd reach the settlement by early morning if she forewent stopping for the night. They could observe anyone they happened to pass by from shadows and successfully infiltrate the settlement after they found covert places to hide and observe. Or maybe they'd find a road and stake that out, catch up to a trade wagon and pilfer it. There were people here, and Sakura took a minute to ponder what kind of differences would stand between them and the people they were about to see.

The animals were the same, yet different at the same time.

Was the same thing true for the people?

Beyond the scientific ponderings, this was a new land and they desperately needed to blend in—that was the call for new clothes. They needed more food to keep their strength up and they needed to know what the locals looked like so as to not stand out as foreigners. This was standard infiltration and their lives depended on it.

They needed new clothes period. The damage to their rags was something Sakura did not find attractive or comfortable.

She had never been able to sew up clothes correctly—even if she could stitch together a human with a great skill that hadn't been seen in the Konoha hospitals in some time. There had always been something about the different textures that either promised success or failure. Fixing up clothes… as ironically as it sounded, had always seemed so… girly and wimpy. She had tried it for a long time… until she had learned better.

Clearing her mind (again), Sakura focused and Sasuke took the time to nap and gather his energy for the task ahead. They needed to stock themselves well with their pilfering. There had to be more villages then this one. Because of the landscape, Sakura took the upcoming village to be of the farming variety. They may do trade with other villages, maybe even cities. There had to be a considerable amount of things that could be filched without anyone noticing in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Clothing, blankets, food, medical supplies, weapons; all of these things were something that they needed…

Sakura kept walking.

* * *

Sai stared up at the sky as he listened to the ocean. He had never taken the time to listen to the ocean before. But now he was here and he listened to it because he didn't have the will to move at the moment. He and Naruto had moved in the opposite direction of Sakura, making as much noise and an obvious trail as they moved along. They didn't know how many people had actually arrived after the second batch.

But they knew that two teams had come after them. They had been very, very tough. Sai had used his all to just keep alive, and Naruto had gone above and beyond his capabilities. Unfortunately, the blond had passed out before they were all dead, leaving Sai to clean up after the other. Sai felt his fingers itch if a faint wash of irritation before that emotion went away, just like all the others.

Blinking for a few more moments, Sai shifted his shoulders a bit before he closed his eyes. He had drifted out of consciousness for some time, but he had come in and out of it a few times since the fight. Of course, he had woken up the first time to found that he had been moved. He suspected Naruto, considering that anyone else would have killed him. Naruto was passed out a little bit off to his left side.

He didn't let the thought cross his mind that someone that was a non-hostile had moved them. That was improbable.

With his eyes closed, Sai lifted his arms and slowly stretched them out before settling them back down on the ground. Everything hurt. He took stock of his body and all the injuries he knew littered it, and all of the ones that he could feel. He didn't know how long he had been out. Or how long Naruto had been out. But he did know that they needed to move. Sai, at least, needed to clean up his injuries even if Naruto didn't need to because of the Kyuubi.

Sai groaned as he slowly rolled from his back and on to his stomach. Bracing his arms against the soft earth, he pushed himself backwards on to his knees and sat up. What he would do for a medic specialist at this current moment. All the more reason to quickly track Sakura down—hopefully she was either still moving or had found someplace to hold up with a very strong defense. Sai had heard about what that woman had done during her first genin exam when both Sasuke and Naruto were unconscious. She was reliable, and hopefully any enemy that came to her wouldn't be able to get the best of her. He took stock of his surroundings before he moved on to other things (other thoughts)—he couldn't see the ocean and the noise itself was faint. The trees, the tall, beautiful trees in the area were damaged. Battle scars littered a majority of the trees and a good deal of earth was torn up.

Strangely, he didn't see any bodies.

He looked to Naruto, to find the boy still dead asleep on his stomach. He spotted the torn sleeves of Naruto's clothes but didn't see any injuries on the dirty skin underneath it. Sai lowered his head momentarily in something like relief; Naruto was just fine where he was. He raised his black eyes to Naruto again to watch the jinchuuriki continue on in his sleep.

He looked pretty content, Sai supposed.

For a man who had just given up his dream, he looked to be happy enough in his sleep.

Sai moved, shifting his body so he was firmly sitting on the ground on the seat of his pants with his legs stretched out in front of himself. They needed to find Sakura and Sasuke soon, but for a moment Sai needed the rest. Sakura was their medic, and she was strong—Sai didn't feel any anxiety over leaving her alone for the time being. Was this worry? He had thought the same thing just moments ago when he was shifting around and examining his surroundings… Even if it was Sasuke, that old hag couldn't fall to the invalid that the other currently was, and Sasuke most certainly wouldn't kill his only chance for survival.

As it was, Sai needed to think.

They were always going to be in danger. He didn't think it would turn out this way.

He had left Konoha with the pre made plan of going after Sasuke. Or really, Sakura was the one with the plan. Even if, the moment that the chances arouse that Sasuke didn't have to die, Sai hadn't thought Sakura would back down so quickly from her resolve. Of course, no one would want someone precious to them to die.

The only reason why Sasuke's actions hurt Naruto and Sakura so much was because he was precious, right?

When Sakura had just abruptly left the meeting with her friends in tears, no one had moved to stop her. Sai had left a clone and followed her home, leaving the clone to record the information of that meeting. Sakura had already cried earlier—even if it was just a bit—and for some reason, Sai thought these tears were different. When she had reached several streets away… she had wiped off the tears like they were nothing, frowned and moved with a determined walk toward her home.

She never said anything when Sai had moved and joined her. She had just grabbed a few traveling items from home and then they had taken off. They walked right out of the gates of Konoha and no one had said a word. His clone caught up with him an hour out of the 'hidden' city. It reported that Shikamaru had proposed a plan for them, as a group, to go and eliminate Sasuke.

That group would head out the next day. They were already that far ahead of Shikamaru. He wondered if the genius had even taken in to consideration that Sakura was more then she seemed?

But that didn't matter anymore.

Raising his hands, Sai covered his face and took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. He did it a few times before he dropped his hands back to the ground. He didn't need to worry about any allegiance to Konoha at the moment. He didn't have… anything waiting for him back there. While he had, indeed, met and potentially made friends with his age group… in the long run, they truly didn't mean as much as Sakura or Naruto meant.

He was sure that Naruto and Sakura were… _special._ Even if he couldn't really put a thumb on what 'special' really meant.

Even if he felt like a shabby replacement for Sasuke… did he hold a special place in their hearts?

Sai thought that because they were teammates, that was supposed to endear them all to each other. To make them special—Sai thought that by being teammates, they would form such strong bonds like the kind Naruto had with Sasuke. But even as they were now… Sai didn't know for sure.

"It doesn't matter." The words ached softly but soon that was gone as well and Sai was stuck in his indifference as he slowly stood up from the ground. It was tedious, and a wound to his calf burned at the slightest weight and movement. Grunting, Sai stumbled to the nearest tree and leaned against it. What a bother, everything ached. He had really been brutalized in battle—it had been a desperate battle, he had _wanted_ to live.

There was always a first for everything.

A soft stream wasn't too far from them, and Sai made quick work of finding the thin path of water. The stream was so small that he could step over it without any problem. He didn't even need to water walk. Letting his body fall ass first to the ground next to the stream, Sai grunted again. Maybe he shouldn't do that, but at least he hadn't been stabbed in the ass and sitting was the least painful position he could think of.

The thin creek was soft, yet fast moving. It flowed from the mountains to the ocean (if it even reached the ocean) and Sai trusted it well enough to help clean off the worst of his injuries.

He took off his shoes and places his feet in the festering cold of the water, ignoring the way this particular stream chilled him as he washed the thin cuts of gravel from his toes and washed the grime off. He rolled his pant legs up and turned his eyes to the wound on his right calf. The blood had clotted over grossly in the middle of the right side of his right calf muscle. He sighed to himself before roughly jerking the scab off and then washing the now bloody wound. He washed the lingering dirt out of the cut along with the few small rocks and the occasional leaf that was inside and he worked it until nothing else came out.

He unclipped a pouch from his belt and opened up his field medical kit. Sai mused that Naruto probably didn't even carry such a kit as he pulled out some ointment to help the stab wound along as well as he cleaned it out. Using a small circle of cotton, he cleaned up at the excess blood around the wound before taping a gauze pad to the wound and then wrapping a light layer of bandages around it. He washed off the rest of his pale leg before unrolling his pants and fastening them back to his ankles. The material felt grimy and disgusting against the clean skin…

But he wasn't going to go around without any pants in this place. As torn up as his clothes were, it was a better protection then nothing.

He worked silently, carefully and went through the occasional slash or stab that littered his body. He was surprised that he had gotten hit along his back. A long slash running from left to right along his back. He rarely got hit where his exposed skin was, most of his scars were under his pants, his legs were a common thing that got hurt during battle.

"Ne, Sai. Your pasty face looks worse then normal." Naruto grumbled as he weaved through the trees toward the other. Sai, slightly startled that he hadn't heard the other, relaxed when he noticed that it was indeed, Naruto. Naruto without a single wound and walking normally and not tiredly—even though it was common knowledge (amongst Root and the upper positions of Konoha) that Naruto stored the Kyuubi within his body not many really understood that most of his wounds healed nearly instantaneously. That Naruto was rarely tired for long because of the extra energy that was being converted to his own within his body. And considering how long they had both rested within the realm of unconsciousness, Sai would bet his life that Naruto was probably at a higher level of health then he was. If Naruto had come to him feigning a terrible exhaustion… Sai would have known.

He would have known to kill him.

Naruto snorted as he came to a stop standing behind Sai before he kneeled down behind the other as he grabbed the field kit and said "I'll get your back." Sai didn't comment but he placed his hands on his knees and waited for the other to work on him. A rather stingy session of alcohol cleaning later and Naruto placed a bit of ointment on Sai's back wound but otherwise left it as it was and didn't wrap a bandage around it. Sai, who couldn't really see the wound didn't say anything about it as he took the kit back and worked on cleaning the scratches on his arms.

"I was right." Sai said suddenly as Naruto moved to sit down next to him at the stream. Naruto blinked and looked over to the other curiously, tilting his head to the side. "You don't carry a medical kit." Naruto shook his head 'no'.

"… what if I lost my kit and was terribly injured, what would you do?" Sai questioned as he finished up and started to place the items from what remained of his kit away. Naruto stared blankly at Sai for a moment before he spoke, "uh… go to Sakura…?"

"And what if she is dead?"

_"Sakura wouldn't die!"_

"… incapacitated."

"Uhhh…"

Sai shook his head as he reattached the pouch to his belt. "If we can find somewhere to stock up, make sure you get one. If not… we'll have to make one for you. Its common courtesy to your team mates to always have one." Naruto sighed and rubbed the back of his head as he nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever ya say.." Sai nodded as he slowly stood up. His leg still burned.

"Did you get rid of the bodies?" Sai asked as he made his way back to where he had woken up. Naruto hummed, nodding as he leaned forward to quickly wash his hands and arms before he turned and followed after Sai. Sai rubbed his eyes when he got back to the clearing.

Neither of them said anything as they picked up the harvested weapons that had come from the bodies. Equipping the weapons on, Sai made sure that Naruto had a medical pouch attached to his belt as he restocked his own. Naruto at least had been smart to hide these things in some shrubbery. Even if out of sight was out of mind, Sai acknowledged that it was a good idea and let things be.

There was extra, of course. A stolen bag later and everything was squared away, along with the food rations that the enemy had brought to them. Sai quickly had a ration bar in hand as he passed another one to Naruto. Naruto tore in to the tasteless food, but neither complained—hunger didn't allow anyone to stay picky. Sai ate his bar with a gusto, even if he was far more refined then Naruto was.

Even as they ate, they didn't stay in place. That would be suicide.

Sai started a brisk walk back the way they had fled the first time and they returned to the clearing where they had initially parted from Sakura and Sasuke. He walked with a bit of a limp, but he knew that it wouldn't be permanent. The wound was just freshly cleaned and sore, so soon he'd be in top condition once again. Or as good of a condition as Sai could be considering their current situation. The enemy ninja still laid dead around the clearing. They took a moment to salvage useable weapons and supplies…

… they left without burying the dead.

They'd rather find their missing comrades.

Their only comrades.

* * *

That night, Sai stopped to rest on top of the mountain they had scaled. Naruto delicately sat on the stones next to Sai. They were looking ahead and onward to the path that they were tracking. Looking back, there was only forest before it split off in to ocean. If there were enemies there, then they wouldn't allow themselves to be seen at a distance anyway.

But looking ahead showed that there was more forest followed by mountains. Naruto sighed and sulked, brining his knees up to his chest and leaning against them. "… That's a lot of trees, you know." Naruto said quietly and Sai nodded.

"… how long will it take to find Sakura?"

"… that old hag should be easy enough to find."

"…" Naruto glanced to Sai out of the corner of his eye and forced himself not to jump when he noticed that Sai seemed to actually have an _expression_ on his face. A soft curve of the lips in some small semblance of a smile—Sai was smiling and Naruto didn't think he had ever seen such an action before. Naruto stared for a moment before he looked ahead. Naruto rubbed the back of his neck and stayed silent and they both sat quietly while they rested.

Come morning, they were already gone.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crossover part is actually starting kinda-sorta?

**Chapter 3  
**

Sai was the first to know it, even if Naruto had been the first to feel it—the presence in the back of one's senses that occurred when one was being followed. When one was being hunted. When unsavory eyes analyzed your every move and swiftly plotted out your soon to be demise. And in this case they weren't being followed so much as they were being 'stalked'.

The pasty teen merely tightened his lips and kept to the path that Sakura hadn't bothered to really hide, with Naruto silently following at his side. Neither said a word, neither could say a word for the enemy might hear them. An unknown enemy had found them and instead of engaging them, they had deemed suit to follow rather then attack. And they were leading them along Sakura and Sasuke's trail (which was probably the enemy's plan in the first place).

Naruto had felt the presence much like one notices a big, fat fly around one's face in the middle of the summer. It wasn't so much that he could smell or hear them so much as he just knew in the way that he... just knew. He had never had to explain such a thing to anyone, and everyone always just took it for granted. It was the same sense that he knew that someone had been around on that mission to Wave all those years ago when they had still been Team 7. He had known that there had been people around, even if all he had had to show for it at the time was that white rabbit he had almost killed.

But he could feel these people now. He couldn't tell the number, or their power... he just knew that they were there. Right there! And he damned the fact that they were leading the enemy right to their friends. He had to tell Sai to stop! If they got any closer… Naruto swung around to face Sai only to find that Sai was slowing to a stop already.

Naruto tilted his head to the side and obediently slowed to a stop with the other. Sai wasn't sweating and he didn't see any tightness on the other's face to indicate that he was exhausted. Naruto was good with looking for such things in other people, because he was used to matching other people now that his stamina was, for the most part, fully trained. But it made no sense that the other had come to a stop even if it was terribly convenient.

The black haired teen placed his hands on his knees, leaning forward for a moment and taking a few deep breaths before he straightened; and Naruto got full view of the pasty boy's smile. That perfectly proportioned smile that only Sai seemed able to give, that was creepy because it was evenly measured on both sides with no quirking to either side of the other's lips. That fake, scary and practiced smile... Naruto could feel his face quickly drop in a disbelieving frown. Sai was going to say something terrible! He just knew it!

"I have to rest for a moment. Unlike you, I have a little _extra_ weight to carry."

"Are you _implying_ that I don't have a dick _again_!" Naruto screamed, outraged and dumbfounded that the bastard was making penis jokes at such a terrible time. Terrible timing!

"Oh, you caught on to that?"

Naruto screamed again, _"you're impossible!"_ Merely seconds after shouting, Naruto jerked and swiftly looked around himself, paranoid. Sai merely continued to smile that inhumane and totally fake smile before he moved and sat down on the dirt, a small puff of overly dried and loose dirt lifting up from the ground for a short moment before settling around him once more. They had taken to the ground for a little bit because that was where Sakura's trail had ended up for the most part. She hadn't traveled in the trees after so long. But she didn't appear to be stopping and resting as often as she probably should have been. The trail was old in the sense that at least a day or two had passed since it was made. And already the forest was starting to 'take back' the trail.

The blond gave a sulky, exhausted huff and plopped to the ground in front of Sai.

They turned silent, and Sai took a moment to lean back against a tree, allowing his eyes to practically fall shut. Keeping his eyes open just a sliver allowed him to look out and continue to eye the onward footsteps of Sakura's trail.

The steps she had left behind were heavy due to her combined weight with Sasuke's. Neither of them were much of a lightweight. Sai knew from experience that Sakura had a lot of muscle packed on to her body. At least when compared to Ino, she did. And Sasuke was just full of muscles. With two people with such high density bodies, well… they left a clear trail behind to follow. Of course if Sakura actually tried she could have eliminated her trail entirely. Sai wondered over the lack of effort and pressed the heel of his palm against his chest as he supposed the reason for her lack of effort in hiding the trail was because she expected him to die.

After all, Naruto was strong. Maybe Sakura didn't have any faith in his abilities, and as a precaution should only Naruto survive, the trail was to be visible so the guy could actually find her and Sasuke. Sai stopped pressing the heel of his palm down (why was he doing that?) against his chest and he turned his thoughts away from that idea and his eyes toward Naruto.

Sai knew what he had to do, all that mattered was if Naruto could catch on without him having to say or signal anything to the blond. Sai blinked opened his eyes and pretended to rub them for a moment, surreptitiously glancing to Naruto to see what the other was doing.

… Sai didn't know if he wanted to hit the other with a brick or stab the hand that was drawing stick people in to the dirt.

The urge to do either slowly faded off in to the haze of nothingness that was a normal constant for him.

"Ne, Dickless, I've rested enough." Sai smiled his perfectly trained smile that, for some reason, only seemed to bring a green tinge to Sakura and Naruto's faces but every other woman he had smiled to only gained red faces from. Naruto's green grimace turned to a scowl and he quickly, clumsily scrambled to his feet. "It's about _time_! We're really wasting time here! We have to catch up to Sakura…"

Sai waved a hand as if he was brushing away Naruto's words as he smoothly hauled himself up to his feet. With a tilting motion of his head, Sai turned and started to lead the way at a slow pace, Naruto quickly falling in to step with him.

Sai had a plan, but hopefully it could be pulled off even with Naruto's loud, stupid mouth!

* * *

Naruto clenched his teeth absently in worry as he continued on. Adrenalin was pumping freely through his veins and every particle of his body was screaming that he should be running faster. Sakura and Sasuke were in danger! What was even worse, is that they had either led their enemies on to the correct trail, or that their enemies and gone ahead and went ahead of them, leaving behind another group to kill them while they go to off Sakura and Sasuke!

He glared down at the dirt he was running over, and Naruto made sure that he was running over Sakura's footsteps, putting extra force in to his feet, forgoing silent running to pound the ground with his sandals and destroy the tracks that belonged to Sakura. If nothing else, if more people came in the future they'd be following his feet and not Sakura…

Because as long as they weren't tracking Sakura and Sasuke, they were that much safer—it made sense to Naruto, even if it no one else ever got it.

Because Naruto was paying so much attention to the trail, he noticed when Sai veered off course.

Startled, Naruto stepped off the tracks, noticing that they were going over a bed of small rocks of what once was a river that used to run from the mountain that they had been about to scale. But Sai had turned right to run alongside the mountain, instead of actually crossing it.

"Sai…" Naruto started before his mental processes froze and then rebooted.

If the path faded out like it did over the rocks… there was no one to question why they were going this way if they believed that he and Sai were going the right way. Unless there was a trained tracking animal following them at this moment… they should be in the clear. Right?

Lead them on… Sai was leading their pursuers on!

"… I'm kind of hungry." Naruto added, as if that was what he had meant to say in the first place.

"Reign in your stomach, we're trying to conserve."

Naruto grunted, and merely started to slam his feet in to the ground once they reached dirt.

Well, even if a few had gone ahead along the trail, at least they would be separate from the group that was directly following them. Naruto took a deep breath in through his nose and thought he caught a whiff of burnt earth. The type of earth that was at home instead of the earth beneath their feet—it smelt like dirt with too many minerals and too much exploding powder mixed in.

It was a smell that Naruto had come to associate with Lightning Country.

It had been especially strong when he had kneeled at that country's kage's feet and begged, after all.

He looked to Sai out of the corner of his eye… and wondered how he was going to tell the other this fact without informing their stalkers about their current known status. He had never learned hand signs (and he couldn't really read or write for shit... but seals hadn't really been writing so much as they had been recreating pictures and having this symbol mean this... if that made any difference. But that was all besides the point, it's not like he had the time to write down a 'secret' message for the other) and, well... wlel, maybe Sai had already figured this all out, since he was leading them.

Sakura would have figured this out already. She was smart like that. But Naruto was so unsure...

Naruto bit his lip, worrying it between his teeth without a thought for his actions. He was getting nervous. They were leading the pursuers on to a false path… but it was a path all the same. They were targets as well, so should the other ninja tire of trailing after, they wouldn't have much of a problem with attacking Sai and himself…

What was going to happen? Naruto knew he, himself, was terrible at planning things! He was more of a 'on the fly' kind of guy, or so that was what Naruto told himself. Spontaneous and random were very well used words when Naruto was described and it fit him. Because he wasn't calm and cool and calculating like most of the ninja population, because he wasn't like Sasuke or Sai or Sakura.

Which was why this cat and mouse game was so totally agonizing.

He'd have to trust Sai to knew what he was doing.

Because he certainly didn't know what he was doing, and he was the idiot that got everyone in to this mess!

* * *

They were going North. Of that, Sai and Naruto were both sure of. The stars were shifted, but they still held true. That and the air seemed to change and the terrain was shifting as well. Naruto had thought that they had been going South, but there was a reason that he wasn't that great at tracking (even with the Fox's help, he was still horrible at it). Sai had to eventually spell it out to him that, even though they weren't in the mountains anymore, the air was naturally a bit colder here because they were moving away from the center of blah, blah blah...

Sai easily knew what point it was that Naruto stopped listening and he gave up on trying to explain anything to the other. Naruto figured Sai could share this with Sakura when they met up with her. Sakura would definitely appreciate it much more then him, since directions and stuff didn't mean much to Naruto. Naruto was more of a 'have someone else point and he'd run off in that direction until he found the enemy' kind of person.

... Naruto paused mentally and wondered how many 'kinds of a person' he could be. Maybe he was just that particular?

For some reason, that sounded even stupid in his head.

The mountains were to their left now as they continued to run. Sai had picked up the pace and they had long left Sakura's trail which had gone inland while they remained parallel to the mountains that they had eventually finished crossing. Although they mostly remained at the base of the mountains rather then break off to anywhere else.

Naruto was looking ahead, though, because he could see that the mountains to their left appeared to break up soon, and he was kind of excited to see this new bit of terrain. Something new besides mountains and tall hills and what not.

A few hours and Naruto didn't have to wait anymore. A river (a great river) was dividing up the mountains. Sai came to a stop at the edge of it. The water was some kind of harbor, but there were ocean birds overhead and the scent of salt in the air. The air was heavy and the edge of the water was more sand then dirt. And with his awesome eyesight (if Naruto did so say of himself here), he could see to the left that, far enough, there was ocean).

".. hey, dickless..." Sai started, and Naruto jumped and turned, mouth wide open to yell retribution before he froze when he saw exactly what Sai was pointing at.

In the distance to their right... were buildings. A harbor...

.. and boats.

Naruto felt his stomach clench and twist and go so, so cold. There was a harbor for the ocean... did that mean that there had been an actual drop off point for ninjas in this weird place? That there was some secret hideout for ninjas here that they didn't know about? Were there hundreds, thousands of them?

... were they screwed over now?

"Let's go... observe."

... things couldn't get any worse even if they did go to the center of the enemy base. Hey, if they went to the heart of that base, maybe it'd be the one place that the enemy wouldn't think they would go and therefore be unable to find them there while they raid for supplies?

Naruto grinned. Yes, he was totally the number one most unpredictable ninja! ... Even if he didn't say they should go over and that was really Sai's idea, well... "Let's go!" Naruto grinned wildly before he shoved Sai's shoulder and took off toward the trees to stay out of sight of the harbor village that was some distance ahead. Yes, things were looking up!

"Let's go get supplies for Sakura!" That was the ultimate rude gesture to their enemies, right?

And Sakura would definitely like it if they did so, right?

* * *

Ironically, the first thing that Sakura stole upon arrival to the settlement wasn't food or clothing... she stole a bag. She had stumbled upon it accidently... or, the whole story was that she fell upon the owner of said bag and book while creeping her way even closer to the settlement. It was only because of her occupation as a ninja that she didn't actually trip and fall on the child... or scream.

Silently passing through the bushes was a gift, but apparently it was also a hiding place and Sakura froze before she could step on the person sleeping peacefully amongst some tree roots. The trees were young here, or at least not as big as the ones from Konoha. But the trees and the foilage had gotten less and less attention the closer to the settlement that she and Sasuke had gotten. It wasn't that it wasn't worth any attention... it was just that the smell of smoke and meat and civilization had gotten stronger and stronger the closer that they got.

Maybe this settlement thought that they were secure because of the fact that they were far enough inland that most people wouldn't consider the journey worth it to get here. Because there had been no guards or sentries or even a sign of such things existing here. In the afternoon, this sleeping person was a sign that this place was at peace.

Which made them easy pickings.

But even that didn't take away the fact that... this strange person was a mix of adult and child. Sakura backed away and set the silently Sasuke on to the ground a little bit away before she moved to stand over the creature's outstretched legs, straddling them both before she crouched down, hovering over the person as she leaned forward and inspected the other's slumped head to see it's face. While leaning in close, she pulled her bottom lip further in to her mouth and curved her upper lip down and breathed with her mouth, making sure her breath didn't disturb the creature from sleep.

It was male, she decided. A strong jaw and nose and the lack of breasts claimed so far that it was male. But with these creatures it could be backwards. The ears were faintly pointed at the top tips on either side. The eyes were a bit on the large side. The hands and feet were bigger then the child like proportions of everything else. And hairy.

After some long moments of inspecting the male creatures (or Sakura thought it was male) she glanced around it. There was a bag at it's side and she carefully reached out and picked up the light item and carried it over to where Sasuke was. She sat down next to the other and opened the bag up, just barely resisting the urge to hold the bag upside down and let everything spill out.

There was a bound leather book inside it. There were a few pressed leaves and scattered nonsense in the bag as well... as well as some wrapped up food. Sakura silently grabbed the food, watching the sleeping short creature out of the corner of her eyes. She opened the clean cloth (they had textiles here, it was a deep blue with some kind of faint pattern, cotton) and showed off what looked to be a... stuffed potato. Sasuke was watching her deeply now and she raised the food to her nose and sniffed.

... it smelled like butter... some woodsy kind of smell. It was baked, potentially in a wooden furnace of some sort. There was meat in there as well. The potato had meat and a few other things stuffed inside of it. All was cooked and it smelled clean.

Sakura tore it in half and back half to Sasuke. With one hand she carefully folded the cloth up and stuffed it back inside the bag even as she pulled out the book and glanced through it while carefully nibbling on her stolen food. She noticed Sasuke mimicking her actions after a long moment. Both of them were careful in their consumption so as to not get suddenly ill.

The book was hand made. Hand written and still being written. The lines were long and jagged and Sakura guessed that it was made with a quill. But the words were far out of her grasp. There was no way to secretly learn this language. She didn't think they would have a picture dictionary as it was. This would need to be learned through spoken observation for a long time. It would take some serious effort to do this. Sakura silently showed off the book to Sasuke, flipping through the pages until they hit a certain... page.

A map.

They weren't leaving this behind. Although the question of it's validity was questionable... it was all they had at the moment. Sakura didn't say a thing as she folded the corner of the page for easy access and slipped it back in to the single strap satchel. She handed the bag to Sasuke as they other finished off his food long after she finished her own.

Sakura silently picked the other up, and continued their trek to the settlement... which was so close they could hear the farmers in the fields and the cries of the small town.

* * *

The entire settlement was filled with these tiny creatures. And they certainly seemed... 'human' enough to Sakura as she observed them from the edges of the actual settlement. She had thought about taking Sasuke in initially, but he was a handicap at the moment. She had gone out on this recon mission alone to gather intelligence and she had left the other up high in some trees.

There didn't seem to be any kind of security force here as it was. Nothing but the animals which hardly noticed her presence when she had passed them by. She smelled a lot like the forest now for them to get too upset over.

But this settlement was rather human to her. Different, certainly... and very vulnerable but human all the same. If she had a different life, and lived in as calm of a place as this then she could imagine living in one of these holes in the ground. By the late afternoon she had been able to find a open door and had snuck in to a house. All of the furniture and the buildings... were very stately, but everything was crafted for these small people that weren't even very tall to her. And Sakura saw herself as a person on the lower side of the height spectrum (along with Naruto.. no, wait, stop thinking that!) but even she was often times too big for certain places.

In that house she had found another map that looked far more updated then the one she had. She gave it a curious glance before slipping it in to her stolen bag. The bag was leather and she felt it would last some time. She didn't think stealing would cause too much of a ruckus here. People lost things all the time and the creatures here tended to... horde things. Their homes seemed stuffed full of stuff.

Sakura found a book full of illustrations and pocketed that, before stealing away in to the kitchen. She took only a small amount of food, and may have indulged a little just because there was so much of it in one of the many storage closets that this one hand (there was five of them, she counted). Although the thing she really partook in stealing was salt (or what tasted like salt. It was faintly spicy to her tongue but the aftertaste was the same) and other herbs... and a few potatoes. Even the potatoes were strange, more square then the round that she was used to.

Her stolen bag had a distinct weight to it by the time she had left that first house.

Wandering around, sticking to shadows and foliage was something that she was moderately skilled at. She wasn't the best, but she was good enough to get by all of these creature's unwatchful gazes and notices. It was as if it was a town (not big enough to be called a city) of children.

As she watched and listened (as best as she could to the strange mutterings these creatures did) Sakura thought about the current problem she and Sasuke had... clothing.

These creatures were far too tiny to steal clothing from. But they needed new clothes. And surely from their obvious use of textiles, they had to have some uncut cloth sitting around in someone's home. They did not have shops here so much as an open market. Or Sakura assumed that it was an open market in the main center square of the village. Most of the people were gone from it since it was late in the day, but a farmer or two were still around with their shop stalls amongst the remains of previous shops.

There was no uncut cloth anywhere in the market square... and she browsed and snuck looks in to the houses for a time. Looking in to the tiny, round windows was certainly a new experience and for a time her head felt bigger then normal to her. Most likely because the windows were smaller then normal. They were about the same size that they put on the civilian prisons.

She returned to Sasuke nearing the later part of the night.

Sakura found the other drowsing in the tree she had left him in. It was obvious that he had moved around some in the time she had been gone. Sakura hug her bag up on a sturdy branch and took a moment to just look at Sasuke.

The other was dirty... dirty and delicate, if that even made sense. The past several days (had it been weeks already? She couldn't tell and the days blurred together for her) had not been kind to either of them. Sasuke was leaning against the base of the tree, legs spread out and hanging from both sides of the branch that he was perched on. The base of the tree sloped backward, she had picked this tree specifically for it's reclining feature.

She sat down in front of the other so that their knees almost touched as she straddled the tree as well. The other had obviously lost a good deal of weight. There were still plenty of bruises on the other and she knew that Sasuke had to be exhausted. He needed to heal and this place was as good as any for them both to recover somewhat. Sakura silently let out a breath and pressed her gloved hands in to her face and she leaned back until her back touched the branch she was laying on and she laid there. Sasuke was practically asleep, and she had plenty of time to think.

Far too much time to think.

... the moon was the same here, but the stars seemed strange and different. Sakura tilted her head a bit to the side as she looked up through the leaves at the sky.

This new sky (which wasn't really new at all) reminded her of Sasuke. For obvious reasons. Which brought her back to the thoughts that the other was still obviously injured. And the fact that the other was still injured did her no good. Sakura raised her hands and covered her face, closing her eyes so she could just focus on this thinking because this could only lead to something irreovocable. Once their dynamic was changed, then it was changed forever.

If she healed the other, Sasuke would be fully able to move. Would the other abandon her again? That memory of waking up on the stone bench of Konoha in the morning... the cold chill of stone under her body had chilled her to the bones and she felt a faint coldness to the world around herself from the mere memory of it. Oh, she did not want to be left alone... even if it was Sasuke... or maybe because it was Sasuke.

She had only wanted them both to live. She wanted Team 7. Team 7 with Sai, she couldn't forget that pasty bastard that was just as much a part of the team as Sasuke was. She couldn't recall at the moment, but at one point the team cell dynamics had four people in them, right? Back when medical ninjas were assigned teams. It would be fitting then, that the students of the Sannin would become such an old fashioned team, right?

Sakura sighed out loud and let her hands slide off of her face and her arms dangle off the side of the tree as she watched the sky once more.

Sasuke needed to be healed.

Just like she had trusted Sai, she had to trust Sasuke now. Or at least more then she currently was. While, deep down, she really wanted to trust him with everything she had (just as she trusted Naruto), the smarter part of her knew that it wasn't a smart move to put so much in to such a... untrustworthy person. In a traitor.

But they were all cut from the same cloth, somewhat.

With a final debate with her inner self, Sakura hauled herself up and looked to Sasuke... only to find his dark eyes focused right on her. They gleamed in the light, wetly and so... alive or dead, Sakura couldn't tell if his eyes were alive or dead.

"... Sasuke." She breathed his name before she paused and shook her head. She placed her hands on the branch between her knees and folded her legs backwards so that her feet could find purchase on the branch under her and she hauled herself up. "Stay still, Sasuke..."

She had enough energy for this...

Crouching down between his knees, she reached out and took the other's jaw between both of her hands. Sakura had to ignore the way that the other flinched and it took her more then she would like to admit to close her eyes and just focus on the damage that she had given to the other's jaw.

She fixed the other in the green glow of her chakra.

She did his jaw first before she moved down to his right ankle. A soft apology for the fact that she had to shift his ankle a little was uttered before she twisted the broken thing. Sasuke grunted and Sakura made quick work with healing it. Healing his ankle took longer then normal, but she didn't have as much energy at her disposal then she was used to. Although after that ankle was done, she came to find herself exhausted. She could do no more, not right now.

She tucked the makeshift splint she had made on the other's ankle, putting it in to one of her hip pouched for now to ponder over it's continued usefulness later. Sakura rubbed at the back of her neck as she stepped back and sat down cross-legged in front of Sasuke on the branch. "That's it for now. Focus on doing some rehabilitation exercises for it. Heel raisers if possible... when I have more energy I will get that shin of yours and save your arm for last."

The silence seemed to ring after she finished her quiet words and after a moment, Sakura took a chance to look up and to Sasuke again. The other's intense gaze was still on her. He looked more like a doll right then and there then she cared to admit.

She paused for a moment before she finally spoke, ".. Sasuke..."

"Do you regret leaving?" She had to know this. Did the other regret leaving Team 7? Leaving Konoha? Leaving Naruto and... her? Sakura felt unsure and off-balance, but as the world started to blur around the edges and she fought off exhaustion... was it just her, or did Sasuke look as unsure as she felt?

She wobbled and took the other's continued silence as his answer. His consent. Silence was just a way of saying yes for the moment. Sakura reached out and grasped the bag of stolen goods from where she had hung it up. She silently handed it over to Sasuke, who grasped the bag in one hand. "This is from recon. They speak a foreign language here. All the books are handwritten and there seems to be no mass production of anything. No electricity. Everything is... clean and old here, like a farming community. No electronics whatsoever."

Sakura grimaced and raised a hand to her temple and hoped to stave off the coming headache. "Eat something. I need to... rest." The other could explore the contents of that bag while he stayed up through the night. She was sure that the other had rested enough during the day. She carefully stood up and dropped a little on to the branch below Sasuke and settled in, laying entirely down on the branch.

Focusing was hard now, and the world felt heavy and thick... Sasuke became a passing concern as the stress of several days finally finished catching up to her, and Sakura fell in to a deep sleep, knowing that black eyes were watching her from above.

* * *

Sasuke pressed the bag in to his stomach with his good arm as he tilted a little to the side to just watch the pink haired ninja. After a long moment he shifted back in to his balanced sitting position and he looked down to his right ankle. He stared at it a moment before he carefully pointed the toes of his right foot out and drew an invisible circle in the air with his toes. No twinges, no pain... everything felt right, even if it felt weak from not moving for such a long time. When Sakura first moved in, he had expected foul play...

... and another part of him, apparently the currently stronger part of himself, had hoped.

And Sakura didn't let him down this time. He raised his left hand up to his jaw, carefully watching the bag to make sure it didn't fall. He didn't think Sakura would be able to wake up even if he did drop it. That injury felt perfectly fine.

If only she had been able to heal up his left shin, then he would have been practically ready to move on his own. Well, he could move on his own now since his ankle was good to go. But that left shin would make things awkward. Sasuke slowly stopped feeling his jaw and slowly let his hand drop down to the leather bag that was in his hands. He paused for a moment before he slowly pulled the flap over to the side to peer inside.

Food. Saliva filled his mouth and Sasuke... well, Sasuke didn't think about much else.

He found a whole onion and a tomato... and maybe Sakura had planned on doing something with them, but Sasuke found his craving of food too great to think too much of the other. He placed the tomato in to his shirt, letting it fall to sit at the fold where the purple rope around his waist stopped it from falling out. He peeled off the first layer of the onion, ignoring the slight, automatic watering of his eyes as he did so. He looked at his dirty hands to the relatively cleanliness of the onion... and then he took a big bite of it's side.

Slipping the first book they had found when they got the bag itself, Sasuke began to calmly leaf through it as he slowly crunched the onion down to almost nothing. When it was done, he aimed and threw the remains in to a bush on the forest floor.

He paused and checked to see if Sakura was still asleep and he looked to the sky. It had been roughly an hour or two now... he paused before he brought out the tomato.

Sasuke wondered if Sakura had only risked picking this up because she knew that it was his favorite food. And had been his favorite for as long as he could remember.

He savored every bite of his tomato as he continued to flip through the book.

* * *

There wasn't much to be learned from the books. Besides the obvious, of course. But he couldn't understand the words. And even the book of illustrations didn't help like Sakura had planned it would. The little footnotes near the illustrations were sentences rather then words. And there was just so many... fantastical creatures in it. Horrid, twisted creatures and beautiful things. Was this a book of fairy tails?

If he could crack this code, it would be useful... but for now it was impossible.

* * *

The night seemed to last for ages to Sasuke, who could really only sit and think after a while.

... and his thoughts returned to Naruto. That orange haired fool normally hung on the edge of his thoughts. But now he focused on that idiot. Naruto had sure changed a lot after three years. The other was strong now. Fighting the other... fighting the other had been hard, even though he wouldn't want to admit it.

The longer since it had been since he had woken up on the ocean, the more his memory came back from movements before things had gone dark. Well, not everything was coming back. And things were all jumbled up inside his head. Once again, he really suspected that there had been a head wound somewhere during his losing fights amongst the Kages of the nations.

... if only he hadn't run in to Naruto before Danzo... where would everyone be now instead of where they were?

Danzo had been his main objective, but the other had fled the Kage meeting... and Sasuke, even though the others had beaten him... he just needed to end Danzo. Danzo was first, Konoha second. And who else but Naruto could ruin such simple plans? He had sensed it, he had been so close to Danzo. They had talked, bickered... insulted each other... traded blows. Karin had been there, yelling something and worrying about something else.

Naruto had exhausted him. Naruto normally did. Mentally and physically. Naruto had even broken his arm.

But Danzo had come upon them. It was Danzo that had broken the rest of him. He had seen Naruto's hesitance in the face of the other. Danzo had been wearing the Kage outfit, after all. Where would Naruto's loyalty go but to the next Kage? (And that had hurt more then he thought it would. He couldn't see Naruto really obeying that murderer... No... not Naruto too...)

Sasuke dropped his left hand down and on top of his broken right arm and he closed his eyes with a sigh. Most of those fights were blurred to him. Danzo had thoroughly thrashed him. Eyes... he remembered Sharingan eyes. All over the other.

And then the world had gone dark. And he had woken up on the ocean.

Sasuke hunched his shoulders in closer, and wished... Maybe it would have been better for everyone if Itachi. Loyal, forever loyal Itachi was existing in his stead. That man... what world of good could he make? Knowing the full story of the other made his body hurt, and Sasuke couldn't even really understand why. Only, knowing Itachi's pain was driving his made. It felt like there was a weight on his shoulders, pushing him down in to the earth. The weight that came with his stupidity, of being unable to understand the real reason for the massacre.. the weight of Itachi's love for him.

Who would have thought that Itachi had loved his little brother enough to plan out every step Sasuke would take... to the point where he would even return to Konoha. Itachi had planned on giving him peace.

... but moments after attaining that peace, all he had felt was empty.

Perhaps that was why he had latched on to Danzo and revenge so quickly. He understood now (understood in the only way possible. Through hindsight) that all those who had spoken to him about revenge when he had been young were right. They had been right... that emptiness had been terrifying.

But Itachi was dead now. Sasuke pressed his lips together and slowly opened his eyes.

... yes, Itachi was dead. And Sasuke ignored the ache as he slowly tilted his head to the side and looked down. It was almost dawn now, and Sakura was still visible to his eyes.

Sakura and Naruto had followed him for years now. Always following after him, like loyal dogs. Were they the new Itachi of Konoha? Sacrificing everything for their homes? But... but they had given up that village for him. That was a marvel. Sasuke watched her for a moment longer before looking off to the landscape. Yes, they really had given it up for him, why else had they ran rather then turn him in to the proper authorities?

If Naruto had won at the Valley of the End... would he have carried Sasuke all the way back to Konoha without care for himself and his injuries?

They both knew about Itachi... and what he did...

Maybe they too, should know what Konoha had done to the Uchiha?

But Sasuke shied away from that. The knowledge burned all that knew it. It boiled his blood. It made him angry. And Sasuke knew they wouldn't understand (but what did he know of strong Sakura and headstrong Naruto? The two who had followed and cared for him even though he was long out of their reach) the pain that had occurred.

He needed... he needed...

Sasuke needed time. And he was sure they had plenty of that in their future... As long as no one else found them.

* * *

Young Frodo Baggins went backto his new home with Uncle Bilbo, and wondered where his bag and his journal went to for the rest of that night. And in to the next morning the young Hobbit (a unnaturally curious and strange Hobbit that he was) decided that it would be an adventure to find where his rather private journal had gone to.

He was still new to Bag End, and the community itself was welcoming enough. But Frodo was still a stranger and he could feel it all the same. The twenty one year old Hobbit huffed to himself and dusted off his hands as he finished wandering around his and Bilbo's home. It definitely wasn't here at home. He had looked through all of the bookshelves since the morn had come, and he hadn't seen a hint of the pretty leather cover. Well, well worn would be the right word for the cover. He had had that journal since the death of his parents when he had been twelve. And the only real reason why he had it was because he didn't write trivial things in it...

It was a journal that was almost done, and it held most of his precious memories of his parents before their boating accident and he was aching to find it again. He would have to make sure that it didn't leave his house again, because the pure emotional anguish that was coming from that lost book was near crippling. He knew Uncle Bilbo wouldn't have carried it off or anything, so that would mean that it was only himself that could have misplaced it.

Frodo slowly looked over his shoulder to where Uncle Bilbo was hunched over his writing desk, happily writing away his stories in his rather elegant script. Frodo had found that he really did have terrible penmanship compared to his dear uncle. He had promised to practice but he always got fed up with the result and he had yet to get better ("...things like this take time, Frodo... some longer then others...").

He swept his dark curls back from his eyes and he moved to head back to his bedroom to put on some real clothes. He had been wandering around the house in his sleep clothes since the morn and it was around lunch now (he, of course, had stopped for first and second breakfast but he had skipped his late afternoon snack when he had become enthralled with a few pages Bilbo had written) he decided he would get ready for the day, eat a small meal before he headed off to start his adventure.

He rarely got enough adventure... but he guessed that his journal had been in the bag he had lost yesterday in the forest. He had probably forgot it near his favorite tree. He had woken up from an afternoon nap and it had been dark out. He had run straight on home because he had known that Bilbo tended to worry about him when he skipped meals.

"Uncle Bilbo, I'm going to be off in to the forest again today."

As he continued off, Frodo heard Bilbo home and then call after him, "don't let the spiders get you, Frodo!"

"Wrong side of the _mountains_ , Uncle!"

And thus, Frodo began his adventure for his lost journal. Maybe he would find that shy gardener and bring the other along. Sam was a bit of a loner here, he noticed. He had heard that it had happened because he had gotten picked on as a child for being too chubby. Frodo was sure that the other would make a friend regardless, though.

This was going to be fun, Frodo didn't doubt it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angst and almost cliffhangers.

**Chapter 4  
**

* * *

Frodo decided that whoever had picked so badly on Sam when the other was younger was definitely a bully of most extreme measures. Frodo had taken a moment to step back and merely observe the other from the gate of the house that the other was working on. Sam had become a hired gardener, and from what Frodo understood, it was a family tradition to go in to such a profession. After all, the only gardeners around seemed to be from the Gamgee family. That, and Sam had the best green thumb for gardens in the village.

Of course, Frodo could only wonder why the other wasn't working out in the fields. A green thumb like that would get many a good harvest in. But Frodo supposed that Sam merely had family in town and didn't want to part. If his parents were alive, Frodo surely wouldn't have wanted to either. But this was all besides the point. As was the fact of wondering about Sam's profession.

Sam was a bit dirty all around, as all gardeners tended to be. Frodo had heard around that Sam had dirt under his nails all the time. And he certainly was chubby. Not the largest Hobbit in town, surely. But one of considerable... circumference.

All Hobbits loved their food. What, with six meals a day plus snacks there had to be a love there. Most of the younger Hobbits tended to remain slim until they got older. Even now, Uncle Bilbo was a wiry old man. But he did have a bit of a belly forming now that he was really aging. Frodo had yet to gain such a problem, and he was grateful for it.

Although for poor Samwise Gamgee, even when kneeling appeared to be curled up and on himself. Elbows tucked in to his sides and a light cloak thrown over his shoulders. It wasn't the season to wear such a thing, but in passing Frodo had seen that the other wore it all the time.

Might be because it obscured most of his body from view.

Frodo paused before he glanced up to the sky. It was noon, and there were only so many hours of light in a day. Only so many hours left in this day to look around for his journal. Shaking his head, Frodo put a smile on his face before he looked back to the gardener. Sam was only sitting around on his heels at the moment anyway. The other had to be done gardening and seemed to merely be looking over his work with a careful eye.

Frodo hadn't made any real friends yet... and Sam seemed to be of the right sort.

"Samwise Gamgee!" Frodo called out to the other, making the other startle. "Come have lunch with me."

* * *

Sakura woke up to hot sun burning her face. Well, she wasn't burning so much as uncomfortably warm. There was no ocean breeze, and the cool mountain breeze of the day before that had followed them down obviously hadn't continued. The back of her shirt stuck to her awkwardly and the backs of her knees and the insides of the elbows were sticky. All in all, Sakura woke up at noon, to half a day wasted to an equally uncomfortable looking but fortunately still asleep Sasuke.

She had slept for longer then she had planned, and as she climbed (with her hands and feet, her chakra wasn't going to be wasted yet) she came up and on to Sasuke's branch to see the other still deep in his sleep. She didn't know how many hours they had laid out like this, and the pit in her stomach was tense and cold as she looked around.

... they needed a less vulnerable base. They now had a solid food supply, information... this area was as good as any to heal up in. Although maybe not in the trees. While it was not a natural inclination for anyone to look up (unless they were ninja, Inner Sakura snorted) there was always the odd chance that someone would. And these people were little. They would never blend in without an illusion.

Sakura reached over for the food bag that was sitting between Sasuke's thighs and drew it close to herself. Checking the contents, she found what Sasuke had eaten the night before and smirked. Sakura had known that the other would do that. She had known, and the pit of fear gradually loosened as she relaxed a little.

She crunched down her own onion with care, along with a strip of salted meat that was in jerky form. The potatoes were still raw, but they could be cooked later. Unless they had to be eaten raw. But Sakura would perfer that they be cooked, she had never eaten a potato raw and hadn't really planned on it. Setting the bag back in to it's spot so that it wouldn't fall again, she met Sasuke's now opened, silent eyes.

... Sakura blinked back at the other before she looked away. ".. I'm going to scout for a more secluded location. Ground level or below. It's too late in the day to go in to town and observe." The sun was already on the way of sinking—or, in Sakura's opinion it was. Sasuke merely blinked and watched her for the moment and for a split second, Sakura felt the hot burn of annoyance. Sasuke couldn't even bother to open his mouth and speak to her, huh!

Huffing, Sakura turned her head away from the other, hair fanning out as she removed him from her sights and with a single shift, allowed her body to tip and free fall to the ground. She landed on her feet, silent. And for a moment she stayed crouched on the ground. She reined in her burning emotions and her inner voice's raging and then stood up. Time... things will get better in time. In time, Naruto and Sai would return, and things would be better. After all, how far would the Nations follow them?

The first and last words Naruto had said when she and Sai had found him on the road carrying Sasuke.. both of them beaten.. bloody.. exhausted. Naruto's eyes had been large and horrified and twisted between red and gold... The words echoed in her mind.

_"I tried to kill the Hokage."_

The pit in her stomach returned. How far would Danzo go? For some reason, Sakura thought that the other would certainly go far. As far as it would take. Her own words haunted her. They could never stay in one place. Never. They'd heal, and then they'd move. And keep moving till they died.

Till they died... naturally, or unnaturally. Sakura silently assumed it would be the latter.

* * *

Everything was rolling hills and trees around the settlement. She found a few ponds, some shallow rivers and what not... but there were no natural defenses anywhere. And although this should have annoyed her, Sakura found it strangely relaxing. The green, the forest and only the faint smell of civilization. It quelled the home sickness somewhat.

... she was used to this, as sad as it was. Walking around by herself. She had friends, there was no doubt about it. But it was due to everyone being put in their own groups-their own teams-that the order of friends went from team to everyone else. Sakura was, unfortunately, the 'everyone else'. It was no fault of anyone, not her friends and not Iruka-sensei for putting them in their teams.

Sakura had been... lonely. It was not a normal kind of lonely, because she was rarely alone. She had been busy. From being Tsunade's student, to working at the hospital to training to socializing. She had been busy, she had been active.

But all the same, none of them had been her team. None of them had been Naruto or Sasuke.

Kakashi came and went. It may be cruel, but Sakura barely knew the man. Sure, she respected him a lot more then she did most people... but she had always gotten the sense that she wouldn't be enough. Sakura paused in her wanderings and leaned against the trunk of a tree. There was a small pond in front of her, the fifth one that she had found. There were signs around her that said it was man made... she huddled down in to the shadow of her current tree and watched the water.

She supposed she had always known that her own accomplishments wouldn't be enough for him. Because he was Hatake-san... with one Sharingan eye, so many jutsu under his belt.. the sole living student of the Fourth Hokage...

She was Sakura. Apprentice to the Fifth Hokage. She had not survived any wars, nor had she killed a living soul. She had not been tortured. She had yet to be sent on any type of infiltration missions or.. or... seduction missions (Tsunage had laughed at her face when Sakura had hesitatingly brought it up, and Tsunade had blatantly told Sakura that a man could be more seductive and convincing actor then Sakura. After all, Sakura was picking up a good deal of Tsunade's bad habits, along with the good). She had yet to really feel suffering... she had been coddled.

Maybe it was because of that, that Kakashi couldn't bring himself to really support her. It was always Naruto or Sasuke... and for some reason, Sakura could understand why she would by the 'and Sakura'. She would be the after thought.

Maybe this was just how her mind worked. Second guessing all of her memories. Especially now that she couldn't go back. Was she trying to ruin her own precious memories so that the pain of leaving, of abandoning everything else that she held precious wouldn't hurt so much?

Sakura raised a hand to her mouth when she noticed a sting, and she pulled her fingers back to find blood on them. She had chewed her lips so badly in thought that she was bleeding. For a second, she stared at the shiny, bright blood before she growled to herself and shook her head. Jumping to her feet, Sakura pulled her bottom lip in to her mouth and sucked on it as she looked around.

She wished that she didn't have the habit of thinking so damn much.

Looking underneath the underneath had become her specialty after her fist mission to Wave with Naruto and Sasuke. She had honed her thinking and reasoning skills greatly over the years. She was smart, after all.

But... it was hard to stop thinking.

Thinking about Konoha, about Team 7.. about Tsunade and her comrades and even Ino...

_If only... if only..._

A loud crash cut off her thoughts and like a deer scenting danger, Sakura stilled. The crash seemed to echo, but it might be her mind playing tricks on her. That noise was loud, it would attract attention... and for some reason... some distant part of her mind acknowledged that it came from Sasuke's direction.

_Oh damn._

* * *

It was only a few hours after noon when Sasuke spotted the short creatures below his tree. And he recognized the one with the curly dark hair to be the one he and Sakura had stolen from yesterday. Without much thought to the action, Sasuke reached out to the side so his hand brushed over the bag with the hand written book inside of it.

Sasuke had only stolen once, when he was a kid. Before the... the culling of the Uchiha clan, he had stolen once from a convenience store. He had been young, and stupid. How stupid could he be, to steal from a ninja store, especially a store run by an Uchiha within their district? It went without saying that, while he hadn't gotten caught during the act, or afterward... Someone had informed his mother...

The rest went without saying besides the fact that the memory stayed with him still.

He had never stolen again after then... when in Konoha, that is. After he had left his village, it wasn't that he had stolen so much as he had blatantly taken. But now that the little creatures were underfoot, he felt his insides go cold as they searched the base of his tree and alongside the bushes where the dark haired creature had been resting the day before. He was nervous. And while there was no longer any family to punish him for stealing...

It didn't stop himself from feeling uneasy. And he hated himself for it.

The bag had to have been important, to have them come back out again. In the bag was the pressed pieces of nature, the book, the now eaten potato and cloth... and that was it.

Obviously, they wanted the book.

... Sasuke watched them silently, eyes dark as he stayed still. They were talking, and Sakura's words from the night before rang true. They spoke a entirely unknown language and Sasuke had never really gone in to the study of linguistics. It was a civilian profession that had mostly focused itself around the scattered ruins throughout the world of long extinct people. After all, now everyone spoke a common language.

But listening to the two creatures talk quietly to each other, Sasuke wished he had listened more when that specific profession had been mentioned. Maybe, for all that he knew, Itachi might have known something about it. After all, his brother was a real genius.. a real kind, worthwhile person who would remember something random like that. Would have an interest like that. And would actually be useful in situation like this.

It didn't take Sasuke—not a genius but still perceptive enough to be better then most—a moment to realize a feeling that had been lurking ever since he had been told... about Itachi... Worthless. He felt worthless.

A sharp crack rang through the air, pulling Sasuke out of his thoughts immediately.

His hands had been wrapped around the branch he had been sitting on.

... he had broken it.

And then the branch was falling and Sasuke realized that he had to move (and oh god, the creatures could see him and Sasuke would _not_ be the reason that they were outed) and his body burned as he snatched the bags...

Or he tried.

The falling branch took the original bag with it as it tumbled. And Sasuke didn't spare it a glance as he took the bigger, fuller and more important bag with him as he jumped away. His clumsy looking, noisy jump was masked by the boom that the branch made as it fell.

Like a flying squirrel, Sasuke had landed on the trunk of another tree and he stuck to it be pushing chakra out through his feet. He crouched down close to the tree as he awkwardly tried to pull the bag on to his back. Not only did he discover that he could feel the bones shifting in his leg (if his leg hadn't been fully broken before, or it had started to heal.. it was fully broken now. Or so said the jarring pain) but the fact that the straps of the bag were too thin and little for his shoulders.

He mentally screamed obscenities at Sakura as he jarred his arm and his leg screamed agony. He could feel himself faltering as he looked around for a place to jump to. He needed to move. It didn't take him but another moment to find a tree to jump to. He took another leap, and another and he stilled, turning his head to look toward the two creatures...

... one was pinned under the branch. Silent. The cries of fatter one were easily masking his noise.

It was a moment of inattention. A moment of distraction. He had been running on empty for so long that Sasuke hadn't realized just how low his reserves had gone. He felt a violent, sudden yank inside his chest and a curling, clawing exhaustion as he lost control of his chakra...

And he plummeted on to densely packed earth and rocks. It was the shock and the loss of air from his lungs that kept him from making noise at the sudden impact. But his vision went white... then dark... and slowly he could see the tree branches over his head.

For a long moment he couldn't feel a thing. He felt like he was swimming in molasses.

He didn't know when he had closed his eyes. But he opened them.

And he looked up in to blond hair and blue eyes... and they didn't belong to Naruto.

. _..Oh damn._

* * *

Samwise Gamgee... well, he didn't know why he had accepted Mr. Frodo's invitation. He was sore and tired and absolutely pleased with himself and the work that he had done. And even if no one else in town was really close to him... he was close to the plants. And the plants never mocked him for being large, for being strange. He was happy, content.

And then Mr. Frodo, the.. nephew of mad Bilbo Baggin's called his name. And he offered lunch.

Sam was used to being teased. Called names by the other children and offered food before it would be cruely taken away. But as he looked to Mr. Frodo's pale, white face, the easy and kind smile that rested there... Sam didn't think that this was the type of person who would be cruel like that. His Gran talked about people that you instantly knew the character of. When you know they were good, knew that they were precious. And you knew to hold fast...

He had never felt it before. He had never really had a friend before. But it was because of this... that Sam nodded and stood... and he followed Frodo to the market. The knew that people looked at him weird, and Sam almost called it off... But Frodo just smiled.. and Sam let the other do as he wanted. Because just looking at the other's kind face seemed to break down all the barriers, all the caution in a silent show that seemed to silently tell Sam to hold fast.

Sam's Gran had, during her later years, been extremely senile. But one could not deny that her intuition had been extraordinary. Not many people remembered his Gran (Sam being amongst that group, unfortunately) for she had died some many years ago and had been a bit of a recluse. But Sam imagined that she had been much like Mr. Baggins was now. Because Sam liked Bilbo Baggins.

Of course, he had never spoken to the man. But he had seen and watched him, the village was only so big. And when one didn't have many friends to speak of, there was plenty of time to people-watch after work was done. Bilbo and Frodo seemed like fine people.

His brain was telling him this was a bad idea, though. Bilbo and Frodo were outcasts for the most part. They were strange and different and no one liked different.

... but Sam was an outcast for being different. For being larger then his age group, for being short... for being shy and insecure and... and...

And he was lonely. Frodo had offered the hand of friendship. Sam could only hope that the other would keep that had offered, even if Sam was drowning.

The world seemed a blur before they ended up sitting on soft grass on the outskirts of the town surrounded by the huge trees of the forest around their home village. Where the voices of the town didn't quite reach where they dined, but the noises of the forest could be heard pretty clearly.

And it made Sam uncomfortable. He didn't really leave town. He was a gardener, after all. What use did the wild forest have for a gardener? He didn't like being alone in the forest, so it was indeed a good thing that he had Frodo there with them as they made sandwiches and ate.

"Sam, do you like Hobbiton?" Frodo asked, and Sam had been expecting the other to speak for some time. Sam couldn't think of anything to talk about, and had been dully eating his third sandwich when the other finally broke the silence to ease some conversation in to the air. Sam let his eyes drift over to the other, unconsciously straightening his back a little so that he wasn't so far hunched over.

Sam paused, fidgeted and then spoke, "it's... well, uh... it's home." Sam offered helplessly after a moment before he looked away from Frodo's intense gaze. The other was watching him with such focus it made Sam uncomfortable. "I've lived here all my life. Never left." Sam offered some more information about himself. Because while the Shire itself was full of Hobbits and their villages... Hobbiton was where Sam had been born, raised...

"Do you have any siblings?" Sam smiled at the other's question, grateful to move on from their last question. Sam didn't notice it when he had leaned back in to the tree that was behind him and Frodo. They were sitting in the shade with only their feet in the sun. And Sam did his best to try not to think of how large and fat his feet looked like next to Frodo.

Sam hummed, "I've got five. I'm the oldest." Sam often didn't feel like the oldest. But he told Frodo about them all anyway as he relaxed. Of smart, quiet Hamson. Of outgoing Halfred who lacked the Gamgee green thumb but tried anyway. Of Daisy and May who were twins. And of Marigold, the one who wanted to go and explore the world. Sam was envious of them all, for they were all so bright and out going and special. Sam felt so plain next to them all. And often times he imagined that his parents had really only used him as a test run so that all of the following children would turn out alright compared to him.

But Frodo was an attentive as he looked, "tell me a bit about yourself too, Sam. I am talking to you, after all. Not your siblings." Frodo looked amused, and it was only because of the soft expression that the other had that made Sam think that the other wasn't actually talking down at him.

Sam stuttered for a moment, "w-well... I do enjoy gardening. More then anything else, really. Seeing the plants take root and grow... It's the best feeling in the world." Sam spoke softly before he eventually took the bite out of his somewhat forgotten sandwich in his hands.

"I.. I also like stories. My Gran, from what I remember of her... she was really great at telling stories..."

Frodo's eyes had lit up, and Sam could tell that the other was dying to say something. And Sam was touched that the other had waited for him to finish before eagerly leaning toward Sam to speak. "My Uncle Bilbo is an amazing story teller!" Frodo said, his light eyes practically sparking. "You should come and listen to some of his stories."

Sam flushed, ducked his head but didn't answer. "H.. how are you liking Hobbiton, Frodo? A..and Bag End?" Sam finially was able to send a question to Frodo, and he leaned back for the other to absorb the question.

A small, seemingly involuntary smile crossed Frodo's lips and Sam relaxed a little as the other took over the talking. Comparing it to his old home (and Mr. Frodo even took the time to talk about that place, the differences... and even mentioned exactly why he had moved. Even though everyone knew already because Hobbits really were terrible gossips) and speaking about Mr. Bilbo and just how interesting life here was.

Frodo paused in his rambling to glance at Sam. And Sam himself couldn't really put a finger to the expression that briefly crossed the other's face. But then Frodo smiled and just continued to talk. And Sam felt himself relax as Frodo moved to chatting about other things.

Sam didn't know how it happened, but Frodo was soon in the midst of talking about a part of Bilbo's famed, mysterious adventures. Sam was sure that Bilbo would have told any Hobbits that had wanted to hear about these tales. But no sensible Hobbit would even dream to ask. So there had been no rumors about what, exactly, had happened to Bilbo during his absence from Bag End all those years ago.

He didn't know how long they sat there... listening to Frodo talk. About trolls... then Elves! It was only two stories, and maybe not so expertly portrayed... but they had been captivating to Sam all the same. The tale of creatures ten times the height of a Hobbit and seemingly a hundred times wider to beautiful, immortal creatures. Frodo had even hesitatingly, haltingly stumbled over a few words in Elvish. It wasn't the same when it wasn't coming from a real elf... but Sam thought that it would sound beautiful.

Although, after some time, Frodo paused.

"Sam, I..." Frodo hesitated, and Sam found himself pinned under the other's gaze once more. Sam felt a sudden wash of concern... and maybe a little bit of fear. Because the other, with that tone, had to want something from him. And Sam did now have good experiences when other people wanted things from him. Unless it was his gardening skills.

"Would you help me find my bag? I seem to have lost it in the woods yesterday. I believe it's still there. I would enjoy some company, if you decide to join me." Sam hadn't been expecting such a request, and he blinked dumbly for a moment. So the other just wanted some company to get his bag? How... small and easy a task.

The tension eased and Sam smiled. "Sure thing, Mr. Frodo." He had no problem with doing such a thing.

Frodo smiled, laughed a little. "Please! Call me Frodo."

Sam didn't reply, but the both of them got up all the same. They packed up the empty basket that Frodo had brought and Sam took it from the other when Frodo moved to carry it. Sam could carry it, he was bigger and stronger. And it was no problem. Frodo gave him that smile and led the way off to the woods that surrounded the west side of Hobbition.

Frodo fell back in to another story as they walked. This time it was about Dwarves and their mines and once again Sam fell in to the other's narration and story telling ways with ease. And all the while, he couldn't imagine calling Frodo something other then 'Mr. Frodo'. The other seemed so good and kind that he deserved some formal address of respect. And Sam was more then happy enough to give it to the other. Even if the other didn't really want it.

They walked off the normal path and in to the trees. And then they arrived at their destination. Or Sam thought so, considering that Frodo stopped and began to poke around a certain tree while talking about his bag. A beaten dark leather thing. It should be easy enough to find. Sam put down the basket and put his eyes to the ground and started to circle around the tree, checking the under bush.

He bumped in to Frodo a moment later, when they both walked around the same try at the same time and Sam watched as the other bounced off him and to the ground. Sam was still only for a moment before he practically flew to Frodo's side, a spill of apologies trying to come out of his mouth. He was shocked and horrified that his size (and didn't he just want to fall in to a Hobbit hole and never come out) had once again knocked someone down.

Frodo, after catching his breath from the impact of his fall, merely shook his head and lightly spoke, "it's alright, Sam. I know you didn't mean it. Here. Help me up." His smile was easy, and Sam relaxed once again and, with an awkward kind of determination, helped pull the other to his feet. Sam dusted off the other's back without Frodo asking and...

And Sam was relieved that the other wasn't angry. Wasn't mocking him. Frodo was so good and kind. Maybe even too good and kind for Sam. But the more that they talked, and the more that Sam got to stay in someone's presence without them getting annoyed... the more attached he was becoming. Sam could feel it, deep in his bones. It had only been a few hours, but he was starting to feel that if they parted ways after today, life would be that much more empty.

Frodo took a few steps back, eyes to the ground and Sam just watched the other for a moment.

The crack that rang through the forest stilled them both. And Sam started to wildly look around for some kind of source of the noise before he quickly looked back to Mr. Frodo.

Just in time to see a big tree branch fall on to the other, smaller Hobbit and take him to the ground.

Sam cried out (horror, fear, oh this was his first friend and why!) and fell forward when his legs suddenly felt so weak. He crawled forward. Frodo's face was tilted to the side. And he laid still, crumpled where he had fallen like parchment that had been caught underfoot. His eyes were closed and he was so still and pale.

Fear curdled in his gut and Sam froze.

_Was he dead?_

Sam felt the tears, hot and burning as they collected in his eyes. He had finally made a friend, was this a sign that he was never to have one? He hoped his mouth and shut it several times before his thin voice warbled out, "Mr... Mr. Frodo?" Sam could hardly recognize his own voice as he hesitatingly reached out and touched the side of Frodo's face. He was still warm to the touch. Was he still breathing?

His back was moving. He was still breathing. There didn't look to be any blood...

He was fine, he was fine... Sam took several, deep breaths as he tried to erase his shallow, quick breathing. He couldn't panic. Not now. Poor Mr. Frodo was in danger and hurt and Sam... Sam would be the one to save him. He was the only one that could, right now.

Sam stood, half shaky and half woozy. He reached out and gently touched the branch. He eyed it for a moment before he decided that it wasn't actually pressing down on Mr. Frodo. Sam did his best to still his quivering as he reached out again to give the solid branch a shove. It hardly budged. Sam did it again, throwing his weight beind the shove. It shifted a little.

But all the same, his cloak was giving his body a certain, pinched tightness. Every time he tried to move the branch, he could feel his sheltering cloak stopping him from giving his all. It didn't take much heistating to unpin the drasted thing and Sam went in with all of his might and shoved.

It shifted just enough... and then it rolled. At least the arch of it prevented it was flattening Mr. Frodo's legs. Sam stilled, breathing hard as he stod above the other. He had done it... He had moved the branch. He had done it! Joy and elation and pure happiness were such strong emotions, Sam came to find as he hurriedly crouched down next to the other. He gently touched Mr. Frodo's shoulder. Afraid to hurt the other more as he called out the other's name. Just a bit calmer then he had been before the branch had been moved.

Frodo wasn't out of the woods yet, figuratively and literally.

Frodo wasn't responding to his name.

And then came the crash of something heavy falling and landing. It was a moot point, but Sam found himself throwing his body above Frodo's prone form in case something else decided to fall on this one spot. Nothing did, though. And Sam slowly eased off. His eyes went upward as he looked around. He could see the point where the branch had fallen off of. And his heart skipped a little in fear as he remembered the suddenness of it. He understood that this kind of accident could happen at any time.. anywhere in a forest

He heard a faint groan over the stillness of the forest.

... had another Hobbit been hit by another falling branch?

Sam paused, looking down to Frodo. He was breathing... he would be fine. Maybe the other Hobbit would be conscious and fine. They could help Mr. Frodo back together. It'd be easier. Or one could go back and fetch a bunch of others and a wagon and they could all help Mr. Frodo back to Bag End.

He remained there for a moment... hesitatingly thinking... before he realized that Frodo might not have the time for hesitation. He needed help now. And Sam turned and did his best to run to where he had heard that groan. He blundered along. Stepping on twigs and leaves and all sorts of things. He eventually found the other Hobbit. After all, the woods were not that densely packed.

"H.. Hello! Hello!" Sam called a she neared the dark, blurry shape. Merely blurred by his panic tears. And when Sam came upon the fallen form he realized something...

... this shape was too big for a Hobbit.

Sam blinked, and the tears went down his face even as his eyes cleared and he came, face to face... with the first time in his life... with a Big Person. The eyes in that pale, strange face opened and all Sam saw was black.

_Until all he saw was red._

* * *

Sakura had ran (without chakra enhancement, but she was still fast without that precious energy) and even thought she knew it was only seconds it seemed to take ages before she reached their clearing. Their current hide out. And she couldn't help but panic and Inner Sakura had reared her seldom used voice and screamed at Sakura for being so stupid-who the hell splits up when everyone wants your head on a pike!

Even as she took in the ruined tree (her heart stuttered and screamed in terror... ninja!) she heard the sound of a body falling and within a heartbeat she found... Sasuke breathless on the ground near a fallen tiny person.

Her eyes scanned the surrounding, whipping around as she realized that she had a kunai in each hand. Where was the enemy?

"... Sakura."

Sakura stilled.

".. it's not... it's just these two." Sasuke spoke, his voice was different now, now that Sakura really got to hear it without interference. Sakura felt her raised hands drop to her side, methodically returning her kunai to their respectfull pouches as she turned her eyes to Sasuke. Sasuke who had just spoken. To the person that... that...

Inner Sakura was silent again. But Sakura was mentally screaming all the same as she turned her eyes to Sasuke. Sasuke who laid prone on the ground, painfully splayed out with his eyes closed and face pinched. Sakura slowly stepped around the little blond creature and came to strand at Sasuke's side before she crouched down next to the other. She watched his face for a moment as he focused on breathing. She took in the other's pale face, the trembling that ran through the rest of them...

"... Chakra exhaustion." She said absently, getting a grunt from Sasuke as her eyes trailed up to the tree. There was a mark near to the top that had the imprint of feet. She looked over her shoulder to the tree that Sasuke had been in last. Obviously Sasuke's seat must have been compromised, and she had felt the need to flee.

His arm seemed fine, from where it laid on the ground. She turned her eyes to Sasuke's leg and grimaced. That... that had obviously broken all the way. Sakura paused for a moment before she closed her eyes and leaned her forehead (not large, not big, it was fine) against her knees for a moment before she sight and reached in to her pouch for a soldier pill. She needed Sasuke in as functional order as possible. Even if his chakra was nearly gone, he'll be physically able to move. Obviously leaving him crippled for so long had been a bad idea.

"Relax for a moment." Sakura told him before she turned her eyes to the blond thing, her fingers mentally counting over the twenty pills she had. Ten were blood replenishers, the other ten were soldier pills. Normally Sakura did her best to not use them (she hated the burn out) but she needed Sasuke fixed now. Obviously they weren't as secure as she had assumed they would be in a forest.

She pulled her hands out and stood, making sure that Sasuke was going to stay still before she tiredly went and lifted the blond creature from the ground. She carried him to the other one that was knocked under the tree branch. She set the blond one down and checked the dark haired one's condition. Just a nasty knock to the head. Possibly a concussion. He would be fine without any assistance. It was just bruises and a bump.

She brought the blond over and arranged him so that he was near enough to the dark haired one to have had gotten taken down by the same branch as well. She shifted the branch a little to make it less like it had been moved... and then she got down low with a handfull of tall grass and did some careful erasing of her footsteps and presence.

... she had to reach out and deform some of the branch, she recognized Sasuke's hand prints on the base, near the crack.

When she returned to Sasuke, the other's dark eyes were watching the short canopy overhead (not like, but still not so unlike the tall trees of Konoha). She didn't make a sound, but his head and eyes slowly turned to her.

All she had wanted when she was younger was for those dark eyes to fall on to her. And they watched her now with the same burning intensity that Sasuke always had. Maybe she was just projecting on to the other, but Sakura thought that maybe, maybe the other did want to trust her... and it was only the fact that he probably didn't even remember how to be so that stopped him from doing so. It seemed that for so long Sasuke hadn't been human enough to the point that the other had forgotten. Sakura hadn't turned a deaf ear to the news of Sasuke.

... it wasn't as if he really was an innocent soul. All ninja were guilty of crimes that they would know... and others would know as well. Even if it was never spoken.

Kneeling down next to the other, Sakura removed the binding, placing Sasuke's katana with it's sheath down next to herself. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the other minutely twitching in small pain. The only reason that she saw it was because she was used to seeing such signs. Most ninja did so in the hospital when they were too hurt to fix themselves, yet they didn't want to show weakness.

She still saw it and eased her handling all the same. She was as gentle as possible when she realigned his leg and infused green chakra to it. And the effort left her aching and exhausted and hungry. "Where else does it hurt?" She asked, not really expecting an answer as she glanced around and spotted one of the two bags (the other was by the creatures, she had checked, there really wasn't anything worth keeping in there) and she leaned forward and over Sasuke, gently removing the small thing from the other's shoulder and setting it down so she could dig in and pull out... something, anything. She pulled out a potato and started to gnaw on it.

Sakura only paused once in surprise when Sasuke started to speak.

"I feel... functional." Sasuke shifted, slowly drawing himself up in to a sitting position. His face still white and pinched. Sakura expected his eyes to be glassy and unfocused due to the chakra exhaustion. But Sasuke had always been exceptional like that; his eyes were clear and focused.

Everytime he spoke a little, she couldn't help but jump. His voice was just so unexpected that... it surprised her.

Tilting her head to the side, she swallowed some potato (her stomach was silently gurgling with happiness over something more then a soldier pill) before she spoke, "so... you're speaking to me now, yes?"

Sasuke stayed silent, and Sakura almost expected him to remain so... before he turned those intense dark eyes to her and he spoke, "... you are all doing this for me... aren't you?"

"For Naruto."

".. who is doing this for you."

Sakura didn't feel so hungry anymore as she looked down to her almost finished potato. She shoved it in to her mouth and swallowed it anyway. Using it as an excuse to change the conversation. Now that Sasuke was talking, the emptiness didn't seem as big. But, at the same time... she still felt so insufferably lonely too.

"... we've all changed a lot..." She started before her voice failed. Sasuke didn't speak, didn't snot and he only watched her as she tried to find the words to speak. Sasuke had shown something of a stubborn streak as a child. Something Sakura only half remembered. But she knew, through her not so sharp memories of girlhood and Team 7... that even though Naruto had been so loud and brash and so Naruto... Sasuke, at times, had supported the other's direction of thought. Never Sakura, but sometimes Naruto.

But all the same, "... we're still Team 7. Your team is like your family. To leave them behind makes you trash." Sakura had closed her eyes. They were Team 7. Team Kakashi. And even though he had been terrible and damaged and not good enough for them; he was still the first. And his ideals stayed within their own. Even Sasuke shifted at those words.

"Sasuke..." She breathed his name, because it had been both a chant and a curse for so many years as she opened her eyes and looked at him. So close now that she could touch him whenever she wanted. So real and so alive and they were together again... but they were not whole. Naruto was still missing. "Did you not miss us... miss Team 7... at all?"

She turned the question back on him. And he faltered.

"... I have a new team now."

And by God, that hurt more then Sasuke would ever know.

* * *

Sai thought that the architecture of the harbor they had uncovered was... exquisite. And something that was most likely native to these lands. Something that the creatures.. that the people here had made. Ninja buildings used their surroundings as a way to both blend in and live. Konoha used the natural rocks and the forest of the area.

This was finely made, imported stone. They had silently slipped in to the near empty falls and Said reached out and pressed his hand against cool, impossibly smooth marble. No, this was definitely a foreign building. Made by similar creatures. And it was simply amazing to behold. The curving arches, the tall pillars. The carvings and the inlaid gold and silver and what had to be either white gold or a product of similar properties. There were stories inlaid in to the very walls and Sai wished to be able to read them.

Sai stopped (and he thought he felt annoyance when Naruto walked a bit, although he was able to hold his ground) and turned to look over to Naruto.

... the other probably didn't know any real hand signs. So he would have to used dumbed down, obvious signals. For all of Naruto's fighting abilities... he still made a terrible ninja. Sneaking around was more of Sai's skills. The same went for the rest of Team 7. The original team, that is. They took after their teachers almost perfectly. There were some differences, but Sai couldn't be the only once to notice that they were all so bright and flashy and never bothered to hide.

Sai held a hand to his lips, and Naruto pulled a face at him at the obvious reminder. Sai crouched low and motioned for Naruto to copy him, getting an eye roll from the blond boy even as Naruto copied him. At least the other was cooperating.

They needed to find clothing here. They needed to steal and slip in to native items. Naruto obviously wasn't going to abandon his jumpsuit somewhere, and Sai wasn't going to give up the clothes he was most comfortable in fighting. But maybe they could find something useful like a cloak...

It took a while to find out why the halls were so empty. The place was large and sprawling, but there obviously was a people here. And they located them through the open arches that led in to a.. Dining hall. The halls had no doors, but this arch led to a balcony that had several tables and people.

Sai knew of these lands, but had never read the reports about the inhabitants. These creatures were tall and thin limbs and hauntingly beautiful. Sai wanted to paint, to sit down and draw them. He knew he could do such a thing for hours. And it was probably because he was so still that Naruto placed his hands on Sai's shoulders and leaned over his head to get a good look of the balcony and the people there.

... and then with the ocean breeze came the smell of strong... succulent food.

Both of them pulled back the moment Naruto's stomach gave a loud gurgle of hunger. And the voices that had sounded like music stopped (these people had keen hearing to go with their large ears) but that wasn't their only problem.

They had pulled back in to the waiting knives of the enemies that had been stalking them.

Naruto cried out and pain and Sai panicked and he reached out, grabbing Naruto and jumping away and from the ninja (nine visible. Three on the ground and the rest on the walls) that had stalked them all the way here. They were all leaf ninja.

... they were all ROOT.

Sai felt everything go cold as Naruto staggered next to him. Eyes drooping and mouth open as he breathed heavy. But Sai could not check to see how he had been hurt. Or how much. Because he knew the skills of the ANBU ROOT. He had been one of them. He wasn't the best. Not even one of the best.

But even as arrows flew through the archway from the beautiful creatures therein...

Sai didn't think they (him, Naruto, the creatures) would be getting out of here alive.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5  
**

Sai couldn't feel much of anything except cold... and wet. His eyelids were almost too heavy to lift and it took a lot of effort and time before he finally managed to get them open. But after they were open he could see just fine. And suddenly it was a lot easier to look around the world once more, as if by merely opening his eyes he gained back all of the energy that he had been fighting for just to open said eyes. Now that sight had returned to him, several other feelings returned at once besides the wet and cold.

He was laying on sand. He could see and feel the grainy earth that was underneath him. The sharper, rock like particles dug in to the soft flesh of his inner arms as he lay prone, arms flung out and wide open. Sai didn't make a noise as he slowly drew his arms defensively back in to his sides. It took even longer to roll on to his stomach and get his knees under himself to really survey and comprehend where he was—and what had happened. What had happened, exactly?

The trail. The harbor. The building—the people with large ears. Naruto. ROOT. _Naruto._

Battle.

Sai's eyes sought out the harbor, and found that he was at the mouth of the ocean and while he could still spy the building, it was very far. And it looked like the hand of god had come down and punched it. It was a half-collapsed, blackened building. The trees and plant life around it were decimated. Scorched and torn up from the battle of ninja that had happened there.

To his immediate left was a chunk of pillar.

Sai didn't really want to contemplate how that got here with him. Or how he himself got here with it. But he did it anyway. Either one of the ROOT ninja had performed some kind of suiton jutsu and used the water in the harbor to wash them out because they had lost the element of surprise... or maybe Naruto had used one of his crazy, extremely dangerous jutsu... or maybe the strange creatures they had encountered had done something to send them all packing...

_… send them all packing..._

Sai straightened his back as much as he could (because it ached and hurt and he was sure he had been bleeding from somewhere before, but time had let it clot) and looked around. Really looked around himself.

It was only him here. No foot prints. No snores. No chakra.

Just the gentle sound of water on the shore.

"... Naruto?" He rasped.

"... hey, Dickless. Where are you?" He lurched on to his unstable legs as a foreign feeling appeared in the pit of his belly. He couldn't rightly recognize it, it burned hot and cold and made his body feel light and heavy at the same time. Sai was sure that he had never felt this (and it took him a while to recall what, exactly, he was feeling) emotion before. Or maybe he had, and it had never been so intense that breathing seemed to hurt as his eyes flitted around him. The foliage wasn't thick here. Not thick enough for someone like Naruto to hide. He would see orange... or blond... or hear him...

Sai opened his mouth to yell, but ended up choking on his restricted throat. Why did it feel like his throat was clogged by some mysterious lump? There was nothing there. But breathing was starting to become pinched and painful. Sai worked his throat, swallowing convulsively before clearing his throat harshly. Finally, finally he could get the words out. "Naruto! Where are you!" He raised his voice as much as he could. It sounded like a scream to his ears and made his chest light and his head spin.

Although he soon learned that screaming for Naruto didn't make the other appear.

All that he was left with was the tide as it slowly started its natural, temporary retreat. There was the sand under his feet, in his toes and hair and the grittiness of it made him feel more exhausted by the minute.

* * *

Sai ended up doing only what a good ninja would do—although he did it poorly because his body was riddled with injury, chakra exhaustion and some kind of head wound that made it impossible to solidly coordinate himself—and he searched the area around him, searched the edge of the ocean (he found several bodies of ROOT, and he even recognized some. He salvaged their weapons, their rations, their clothes, their masks...and he left their corpses to the water to bloat and become putrid) and he eventually made his way to the harbor.

The dining hall that he and Naruto had stumbled upon had three corpses of the big eared creatures. Well, the ears weren't significantly large when one really considered them. But the points made them unique and different and they were slightly larger then normal. One of these creatures looked like he had met his end with a couple of exploding tags. The head was gone and the chest cavity had been blown open. Bits of gray had been scattered around his immediate vicinity and his insides had fanned out as if a great wind had blown them all out in one direction. Of the three corpses, this one was the worst.

Sai didn't much care, he looted them all. He gathered all of the items he had found—and he was specifically not thinking at the moment because he didn't much care for it—and he prepared for his continuation. Weapons, tags, rations, clothes... His own were in tatters, and he took a moment for basic first aid and wound wrapping before he fashioned himself some black trousers, a long sleeved black shirt from the ROOT that was closest to him in size.

He found a armored vest that didn't quiet fit for it was a bit on the large side, but he put it on anyway. He filled in the gaps with the extra shirt he had looted off of another body. There was still room to move, but now it didn't look so obviously large. That was followed by the ANBU cloak that ROOT had taken to copying to complete his disguise. He wouldn't be able to outrun them. But Sai had been ROOT... no, that wording was wrong, he was ROOT. Sai could blend in with them.

He knew their hand signs, their codes, how they functioned; it would be the easiest thing in the world. After all, ROOT wasn't an individual, and no one would think much of another pale individual slipping in amongst the bulk of their forces. Or at least they wouldn't think to care before it was too late.

Sai refused to believe that Naruto was anywhere but in the hands of these... soulless pawns.

Although now that he was clothed and mostly patched up, he contemplated the sudden holes in his memory. He remembered pulling Naruto back once ROOT had been noticed. And the arrows that these primitive big eared creatures had, those had been fired. A ROOT had lunged at him while two of the ROOT had gone in to the dining room. The shouting in that strange language was something he remembered halfheartedly. He had been more focused on the immediate threat on his life.

He remembered Naruto at his side, the weight of his warmth and the strong scent of blood as he pulled them back through the arches as quickly as possible... and then...

And then nothing.

Sai didn't make a noise as he raised both of his hands and searched his skull for his.. injury.

He found several instead of just one. He had been hit several times on the head. And had potentially knocked it somewhere hard as well. Possibly even in to that chunk of pillar he had found to be near his landing/waking area. Several parts of his face and skull were extremely tender, which suggested bruising. But there was nothing to indicate damage to the bone. He didn't have that dizzy sickness that would indicate a skull fracture.

The smell of food suddenly hit him like a punch to the gut. Sai groaned, leaning forward slightly as his hand went to gently touch his stomach. Oh, when was the last time he had eaten properly? How long had he been unconscious? And Sai remembered that he was in a dining hall. The food might have been old now, but it still smelled like food.

Sai stood still for a moment as he took in blood stains, gore, over turned tables... and still edible food.

He sat and he ate.

It was like ashes in his mouth. His hands shook, but he didn't slow down his careful eating. He pulled food right up off the floor, dusted it off or picked off any suspicious parts and shoved it in to his mouth. This fare was probably far better then the meager rations he had picked up, but at the moment he couldn't tell a difference. He felt cold and the spaces around him felt strangely empty.

Strangely, because he was alone and they were obviously empty. But some part of himself expected that there should be something there. But he couldn't put his finger exactly on what it was.

The only liquid here was alcohol. Sai sipped only a little of it, not risking the fire needed to boil water down.

Nothing tasted good. But he ate until he logically knew he was full.

Why did his eyes burn?

* * *

Sai eventually decided that it was guilt. He felt guilty to have sat around until night fall—but logically he knew that he would be better prepared to blend in with the night. That, and he focused the time on recovery and energy requisition. On testing how much he was hurt, he mentally changed his fighting tactics for his injuries. His left side was weak at the moment.

That, and the more he sat around, the more he was sure that ROOT had captured Naruto. Because he was sure that Naruto was more of a target then he himself was.

He was just a useless ROOT nobody that wasn't special at all.

… even if he had felt special with them. His team. (And wasn't that a marvel by itself?)

And if his body had been blown sky high, he had probably been left for dead—even if he hadn't been found. Although It was a bit of a mystery, the fact that he hadn't been found. He wasn't exactly hidden, and Sai knew that he wasn't exactly hard to miss. Although the answer was simple enough to come up with once he took a moment to think of it.

Sai wasn't much of a target here. They knew he had the information, but it was Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura that would be the targets. Besides, he couldn't exactly speak a word of information to anyone. Not with the seal that was on him. And Sai would be the first to admit that these three were insanely strong. And while he might be able to hold out against them...

… he knew that if they got serious enough, even in a one on one battle... he highly doubted his chances of survival.

ROOT wouldn't bother much with him. He couldn't tell anyone anything. He wasn't much of a threat compared to the original Team 7. Sai doubted he would ever have the strength of them. But for ninja, strength wasn't exactly the point. They were supposed to be cunning. Smart. Secret.

Naruto did have those skills, but he chose when to use them. Sakura was pretty ideal for a ninja until her temper got in the way. And Sasuke... well, Sasuke was crazy. Sai was sure that on a clinical scale, Sasuke was crazy. But that didn't matter much in the long run. Not any of it. When one was truly strong, then they could act as they saw fit. Because no one else would be able to do a single thing about it.

And ROOT was strong. They thought so little of Sai.

They might even think that he would run, if given the chance.

He had his chance now...

… but he wasn't running.

Well, he was running. He had recovered enough. He wasn't moving all too fast. But he was running. Just not in the direction they would expect. He had waited long enough. So Sai stood and left the dining hall that he had stationed himself in during his short recovery. Naruto had been left waiting long enough.

* * *

Naruto had given them one hell of a fight. Sai knew this to be true. All he had to do was follow the carnage. Although there were long stretches of land where there was no damage at all, there were parts where the landscape had been heavily changed. And Sai supposed that they managed to either contain or knock the blond unconscious during the stretches of unmarked territory. It seemed that ROOT were rather intent on keeping the blond alive, despite his obvious missing-nin status.

There were multiple reasons for keeping Naruto alive. He was the container, after all. He was a weapon that could be... if Sai wanted to be morbid (he forced his mind past the initial flinch as he thought of how Naruto could be used)... Naruto could be a very dangerous individual. Naruto was a strong shinobi. A very resilient boy with the potential to be an army by himself.

If Naruto could be broken, he could be remade in to something terrifying.

But Sai couldn't get passed the idea of a broken Naruto. He couldn't even imagine it. Naruto was a force of nature. His will could be related to flames or the ocean. Both of them so vast that the thought of them faltering didn't seem physically possible. Sai could picture Naruto even now—his hair shiny and bright and his eyes large and so filled with emotion. Those eyes weren't meant to be empty. Some might debate about the existence of a soul—but all they would have to do would be to take one look at Naruto to be able to see it.

Sai would never be the one to say that Naruto was an amazing ninja. Or even a good one. Naruto seemed to be the antithesis of all that ninja stood for.

But just because he wasn't a good ninja didn't mean he wasn't strong. Naruto was in a league of his own. And right up there along with him was Sasuke and Sakura. Each of them had followed solidly in their masters' wake. Ninja like them didn't need to be particularly stealthy or sneaky, really.

Not when one could use a single finger to shatter a man's skull.

Not when one could move so fast no one seemed able to touch them.

Not when Naruto grinned so widely and with so much confidence his body language screamed 'believe me!' and Sai could do nothing but believe. Sai blinked hazily and reached a hand up to adjust his mask. He wasn't bothering with stealth at this point. He was following the trail, after all. And this part of it was cold. Even though he had hit another stretch of wreckage...

Sai tripped, but caught his balance in a moment.

He was exhausted. And he was starting to realize that he wasn't going to be of much use in any real fight. He wasn't like Naruto. Or like Sakura or like Sasuke. He didn't have the strength. Not like they did. He wasn't a power house. He didn't have a summons. He didn't have the ability to curl a first and crush a man's ribcage. He wasn't like them at all.

… but he was a damn good ninja. And what the others lacked, he would make sure to have in spades.

* * *

It was the noise that first alerted him that he was close. He had walked through what had remained of the night and through the morning. His legs burned and his feet felt like lead. His chest, well... breathing wasn't the most pleasant thing at the moment. His insides felt raw, like someone had taken sandpaper and vigorously scrubbed him from the inside to the outside. He was stretched far too thin... but he had walked and jogged so far that he could practically taste the ocean in the back of his throat. And that wasn't good. Not for him and not for Naruto. It would lead to bad things – if they were able to successfully transport Naruto off of this land mass.

They had been able to get decently far in land. And from what Sai could remember, there were only certain currents that would bring them far enough out to sea to be able to hit just the right current to bring them home. His mental map of the land wasn't top shape at the moment, but the feeling in his gut told him that they were probably very close to one of those spots.

The trees had thinned by this point in time, but they provided good enough cover for Sai as he moved from shadow to shadow amongst the branches of the trees. After all, Konoha ninja were from the village 'hidden in the leaves', it was practically a specialty. If ROOT hadn't been from Konoha, Sai might have considered it most advantageous. Instead, he just focused on silence and getting close enough to observe the ones that had taken Naruto. He didn't know how many ROOT ninja there was, and that was his number one priority.

It was the afternoon, and he was sure that these ninja hadn't stopped since they had captured Naruto. Or at least other then to heal any potential injury from Naruto's escape attempts. The sun, when it fell through the leaves, felt golden on his clothes—it brought a warmth back to Sai that he hadn't even known he was missing.

Spotting the group of ROOT and Naruto made him feel immensely better.

There.

Sai didn't change a thing of his pace through the trees. Up ahead he could spot the silent forms of ROOT ninja moving in the tree branches. And on the ground was another group that was transporting Naruto. They seemed to have wised up about carrying Naruto on any of their backs, and had tied the other to a branch with ninja wire. Sai analyzed the method and deemed it the smartest thing that the ROOT could have done. Travel through the tree branches with such a straight branch to carry was near impossible to do so silently, hence the team of four that traveled on the ground.

The group directly above them in the trees, Sai estimated that they were a group of three. Which meant that either this was all that remained of ROOT, or they had more out there that were scouts and were keeping an eye for any retribution.

Well, they would never see Sai coming.

After all, the man that wore the mask that he had stolen—Sai had known him well. He had drawn his mask form often enough. They were close enough in size, and Sai knew how the other carried himself. It would be no problem at all.

So, Sai took two kunai in to his hand and softly tapped out the code for returning ROOT to a party that would have thought them dead. Immediately the group of three in the trees stopped and turned to him. Sai stilled on his branch, sending a sudden burst of chakra to his feet to still himself from continuing as the three turned and surrounded him. Soon, all he could see was the leader as the other took position on a branch three ahead of where Sai was. The other two drifted behind Sai and out of sight.

The black hidden hands of the obvious mission leader raised up and he started their typical signs—

_'Identification, injury, status.'_

Young ninja often had a fanciful view on what ANBU sign meant—it was nothing as coherent as they thought. The motion had a definition, but complicated sentences were completely out of the question.

Sai slipped the kunai back in to position and answered.

_'Rabbit Four, head, leg, back, functional.'_

The mission leader—Boar was the mask that he wore and now that he was closer Sai could recognize the way he moved and identify his non-ROOT persona. He had made it a game for a while, to identify ROOT outside of their organization. Sai was especially good with body language, although often times he wouldn't act like it. Drawing was his hobby and his weapon, and the simplest changes in body language made all the difference in both aspects. This man's cover was a 'shop keeper' from one of the ninja stores—his part time job due to it being a family business and he was a full time academy teacher. Supposedly rather ordinary with the plainest brown hair imaginable.

His body language read suspicion, but Sai could understand that. He read it in the hunch of the other's shoulders and the loose way he held his arms. This man was ready to spring in to action if needed.

Boar signed out, _'hour'_.

So Sai signed back the amount of hours since he had awakened, which was around _'twenty'_. The sheer amount of time made the mission leader obviously uneasy. But when lying it was always best to mix the truth and lies together and to lie as little as possible.

And then Boar made a sign then to continue questioning Sai, but it was a sign that Sai did not recognize.

Sai felt cold and hot at the same time as he stared at those hands. His knees felt locked and for one moment he just felt like screaming (in denial or terror, he could hardly tell) as his stomach dropped out. He was going to be found out! Sai had never known that he was prone to such panic as a sudden sweat broke out over the back of his neck. He raised his hands. He needed to defend himself. There were three ROOT but he hadn't had time to identify the other two since they were away from his sight—his mind was going a mile a minute before one blaring thought stopped it all.

He didn't have time to think. He was already moving his hands. So he followed through with the motion of raising his hands and he popped open both of his middle fingers at the mission leader and waved them in irritation before dropping the gesture even as the mission leader dropped his hands and nodded.

Of course—Sai had almost forgotten the 'fake sign' trick.

It was a good thing that the man he was impersonating often got pissed at the trick. The only way to explain his movements had been to complete that rude gesture.

He felt exhaustion creep up his body even as he read the new signs Boar made. The other was assigning him a location. And after an obvious look over he assigned Sai to the floor formation, since they weren't using chakra to keep to the trees.

The whole encounter took less then five minutes.

The three ROOT took off, and Sai dropped down to the ground and ran after the four floor group.

Infiltration, _success_.

Now, he just needed a plan.

* * *

Sai was running out of time. He hadn't been exactly sure of his coordinates but the header of the ground party had given them an ETA. Well, he had via radio, but Sai had been close enough to the man just to hear the muffled words that the other spoke. Which was good, he didn't have the radio that everyone else seemed to have. All the same, everyone sped up—and they had thirty minutes till they hit the shore. And there was most likely a waiting party there.

He didn't have a whole bunch of time.

And Naruto wasn't waking up. His body was slack and hanging like a hog on a stick. It didn't look like this ROOT party had any seal masters, but all the same Naruto's head was bloody. Enough hits to the head would do damage. At least enough to knock the other out.

But Sai needed to act. But his information was so small and he was too weak to take on such a large number. But if they hit the shore or the ocean then Naruto would no longer have his chance for freedom. And Sai didn't really know how many ROOT were running around because even he didn't really know the total number of ROOT operatives.

He didn't know. And all of his training told him to sit tight and weight.

But his chest burned and something inside of him said that it was 'now or never'.

Sai logically went with the 'now or never' feeling.

What else could he do?

* * *

All the same, he did as much quick planning as he could. He had the relative element of surprise but he didn't have all too much strength to fight against a large force. If Naruto was conscious, the plan might involve setting him free. If Naruto was there, Sai would have had a powerhouse to work around. Naruto could do the wide range damage attacks and Sai could slip in and end their enemies quickly and silently.

But he didn't have Naruto. But he was stealthy. But he didn't have the time to plan traps.

But he had his ink and pictures—but those needed a bit of time and it was obvious what he was doing. Rabbit # 4 did not carry art supplies. The other didn't do anything of the sort. It would be known he was an imposter.

He had supplies.

He ached—but he had to believe in himself. For Naruto's sake. After all, Sai didn't have any dreams to accomplish. But Naruto always seemed to be full of them. And wasn't that worth protecting?

When had his life started to revolve around Naruto and Team 7?

And since when did such a thing make him so happy?

* * *

He was able to subtly make some shadow clones somehow. It had been his first daring move and he sent them out with their instructions. No one reacted to it, he was left to his own business. He sent them on ahead with his black wire, courtesy of the ROOT he had robbed. It was just simple ninja wire of the thinnest, strongest quality and painted black.

Very good for assassination.

He just had to wait a little bit longer. The trees were thinning. Soon enough the team in the trees would drop down—just a little bit of time.

* * *

ETA was ten minutes from the sea. He could taste ocean water in his mouth and he could feel the itch of salt on his skin once more.

It was time.

* * *

The clones that he had sent ahead dropped their nooses from the thin trees and pulled tight—there were six nooses with three per clone, but they were only able to snag 3 ROOT operatives. Thankfully, the ROOT operative that held the end of Naruto's 'stick' was caught in a noose.

The moment that the noose pulled tight around their necks, the exploding tags on them exploded. Sai ignored the splash of gore on the right half of his body (he ignored the hot-sick scent and the feeling of wet that exploded across his senses) as he jumped in and captured the end of Naruto's pole even as he acknowledged that his shadow clones had been forcibly dispersed before they could make themselves go. Sai was used to assassinations and all of the innards that the human body contained.

The ROOT around him drew to a halt and Sai was mightily suspicious of the fact that they hadn't 'discovered' him. Did they know who Sai was, and were just bidding their time?

That was three ROOT down.

Four left.

* * *

The infiltration didn't last long. Sai really wasn't too sure at this point if they knew who he was and were just pretending until that moment or he had finally done something to give himself away. All he knew was that there was a kunai coming for his kidneys and they were turning toward him with death in their hands.

Sai dropped down low, letting the kunai rip through his cloak and bounce off of the back of the plate armor he had over his front and back. He ripped Naruto's ankles free and dropped the pole.

He flew a hand to his paintbrush, even as the ink canister he kept strapped to his arm broke—he had ink on his hand and a brush between his fingers—he was ready. As ready as he would ever be.

The blaze of battle just about ripped him out of his senses. There were four ROOT and he was woefully under classed. It was all so fast, he feared blinking in case he missed some vital clue of an incoming weapon. He had never moved so fast while he was so exhausted in his life. He fought just to stay alive, but he was starting to see that it didn't seem like he was going to last long. He couldn't possibly last long against this set of ROOT operatives.

A seconds inattention and his left leg was just about skewered.

Naruto was tumbled on the ground. He was still unconscious.

There was a ROOT operative above his head and coming down. There was one on either side of Sai and he was just barely holding the off and the last one... the last one was off to the side and preparing something just outside of his field of vision. Sai's hackles were raised and he knew that not being able to see all of the enemy was extremely, extremely bad.

.. damnit.

_Damnit._

He flicked his ink covered hand at the ninja on his right, the splatter hitting the white mask with pinpoint accuracy. Sai grinned when he noticed that the vague shape had made the journey—this ink was mixed with chakra and blood—he didn't have much chakra to spare, but he needed it here—the ink butterfly (it's artist points were total shit, but Sai could live with that... if he lived) as it peeled off of the mask and flew up in to the descending ROOT ninja above his head. Sai heard the impact rather then saw it as he ducked under a blow and rolled out of the way.

The butterfly smacked right in to the ROOT ninja's mask and shattered it. White porcelain rained down from above but Sai was relatively protected from that. He used one hand and unclipped his cloak, using the momentum of a spin to toss it in to the face of his attacker on the left—he dodged the tanto stab from his right—

His left leg, his skewered leg, faltered underneath him and he hit the ground hard in one jarring blast.

Sai couldn't stop the scream—there was metal in his body where it didn't belong. His hand flew to his side to where the tanto had stabbed through the leather that kept his chest plate to his body. The ROOT was above him now and his hands were on the handle—he twisted the blade.

_(Where was his mask? He could feel cool air against his face and with a mask on he knew that he shouldn't feel that at all. where was his mask?)_

Sai screamed again, but that didn't stop his free hand on the ground.

It was the shoddiest tiger he hand ever made, but it came roaring up from the ground—it's had was disproportionately too big for it's body, but it didn't need to go far as it clamped it's ink teeth over the ROOT ninja's head and ripped in to the other like a rag doll. Sai didn't much care what happened, he was focusing on breathing through the pain and trying to find some willpower to move.

It was like fire. It was icy hot stabs in to his body and he couldn't stop it. He whimpered. His legs were numb and he hurt... he hurt!

"Na..." His voice broke as he swung his eyes around.

… where were the other three?

A sound—like the sound of the river. Of dragons and ice and lions—

 _JUTSU!_ Sai's mind screamed. But he couldn't move.

A flash of orange—

And things went dark.

* * *

Naruto had had only seconds—the sky was blue and the ground was red and there was a roaring in his ears—and he could see Sai's pasty pale face amidst a sea of black as the water came rushing forwards. Naruto didn't think—there aren't enough time—as he ripped his hands free of the wire and wood—he had no time for pain—and he rushed forward—

He reached Sai moments before the water dragon did.

And they tumbled like fish in a waterfall as the jutsu carried them off. Naruto lost what little oxygen he had after they tumbled into a tree for the first time. Sai was so still but Naruto couldn't see and they were moving so, so fast—

The ground disappeared.

The water turned icy hot and it was darker—Naruto kicked his legs uselessly as his legs burned. He needed to breath and Sai... Sai! He needed to get to the surface, but he was having trouble remembering which way was up and which way was down.

Naruto could hardly open his eyes, the salt stung.

But he picked the lighter direction to go into and he kicked that way.

He broke the surface—

And water blasted in to his face and sunk him under like a brick to the head. His grip on Sai disappeared. Slipped through his fingers like sand. But his quick scramble found the other again—he hadn't gotten any air. He needed the air. In his panic, he strengthened his legs with chakra and kicked. He kicked rapidly with all of his might. All that he could. He shot out of the water with more dead weight then he thought he could handle as he made it to the top. He had chakra on his feet and the water of the ocean under him.

He gasped, a hand jumping to his eyes—he brushed the sea water as much as he could before he shook his head like a dog to clear the excess away and he squinted out with his stinging eyes..

They were coming.

When did they get so far away from land?

The black shapes... Naruto could hardly count (well, he could but he was in a panic and he wouldn't waste time) with how things were, but he estimated that there were twenty dark shapes coming toward him. Maybe more. But the first wave had to be around 20. He looked down at Sai and found that he clutched the other's arm. Sai was so still. The sword that had been in him before was gone.. and the air smelled red—"Sai..."

Naruto felt his voice break.

He shook Sai a little from where he was holding the other. Sai was like dough. He wobbled from side to side with the movement. It took Naruto a moment before he hauled the other up. Sai's chest wasn't moving. How long had they been under the water?

"Sai!" Not Sai... no, no one was supposed to die! No one was allowed to die!

.. Sai had been right. Not just about the medical kit, but about being able to have the ability to save your team mates. Naruto had never really had to learn much medical things. He knew how to put a bandage on stab wounds. He knew when to pinch and when to put pressure when he was needed. Naruto even knew how to stop people from choking on food.

But Sai wasn't suffering any of those things.

But it was the only thing that Naruto know how to do. Naruto ignored their enemies as he hauled Sai up in to his arms. He pulled the other's back to his chest and he jerked his arms in to the other's diaphragm... or he tried. There was armor there where it hadn't been before. And it stopped Naruto's attempts to being the other air. "Shit... shit!" Naruto scrambled, fingers sliding uselessly against the armor. How the hell did he take this off?

"Stupidest idea ever Sai! Stupid idea!" Naruto shrieked at the other, even as Sai's water logged weight tipped the other half over. Naruto couldn't find out how to get the armor off. And he knew oxygen was the most important thing ever.

And he could die without it.

Naruto yelled in frustration, raised his free hand and punched the other in the back. The armor cracked.

Naruto grinned—that was how he could get the armor off! He raised his hand up again and hit... and hit... The cracks appeared bigger and bigger to the point where chunks were falling out. Naruto's hand hurt, he knew it did, but he couldn't focus on it right now.

Of course, when Sai suddenly started to sputter and throw up, Naruto froze with his fist in the air. He went still as Sai weakly shifted his arms, sputtering. Like a turtle that was on it's back.

"Sai... Sai! You're okay!" Naruto yelled as he held still. He let the other continue coughing up water, because that meant he was getting it out of his lungs right? Naruto laughed, "good! Because we got enemy incoming and I need you." He informed the other as he looked up and—

Whoa, the enemy was really... really close.

Sai groaned and weakly raised an arm to grasp on to Naruto's shoulder.

"N.. Naruto.." Sai's voice was so weak, Naruto shifted his hold to help the other stand up right. But Sai didn't move to stand on his own and he merely sagged in to Naruto's side. Naruto felt a cold fist to the gut, it left him breathless as he took in Sai's bloody mouth and too-pale-to-be-normal-even-for-Sai face. Sai shook. Sai's mouth moved silently, but Naruto could read his name on those lips and he noticed that Sai's eyes were too unfocused...

Sai needed a medic.

Naruto felt his heart clench before a red haze tinged the world around himself. Sai was hurt.. and it was these ninja's fault. They looked like ANBU, but he knew they were ROOT. And they would kill Sai. They had tried.

Naruto wouldn't let them... but he needed to safe Sai.

_"KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!"_

Naruto hadn't summoned so many clones at once in such a long, long time. But he had an ocean to cover and he had demonic chakra to burn.

* * *

The boss had sent them out on a mission. They didn't have names, but the clone assigned each of his compatriots numbers. He was, of course, Clone Number 1. He had enough people to assign six names. Number 1 had taken point at the very front as he led their party south. He figured that if they stick to the cost that they would run in to someone... someone who would be able to help the boss's friend.

They had only taken the time to tightly wrap Sai's leg and bandage Sai's side—they had to use Sai's medical kid and they had to break off his armor—but they had done the best they could. At the moment he was draped over Number Five's back.

Sai didn't look so good.

And he was worried over the boss, too.

There had been a lot of enemies when they had left. But Boss wouldn't just leave the clones to fight. And Number One knew why... He had to end this, and make sure that no one could come after them again. But the enemy was so strong, and while Naruto was certainly strong Number One knew that real strength came from cooperation and working as a team. And while Naruto and his clones could work perfectly together because they were the same person, clones still couldn't replace a real team.

A team that wouldn't disappear after they had been hit.

But their team was scattered and in Sai's case, injured.

Number One wished his boss luck.

Boss just needed to make it out of there alive. And Numbers One through infinity would take care of everything else.


	6. Chapter 6 Interlude

**Chapter 6: Interlude**

* * *

In the end, they hadn't traveled far away from the location of the incident. Sakura blearily gazed ahead at the great river across from her. A river like this would be easy to cross for a ninja. But their chakra was near gone and Sakura felt dead on her feet. Sakura slowly brought up an apple and woodenly bit in to it.

It was the only thing keeping her awake at this point. Eating.

A moment later and Sakura dropped her eyes down to Sasuke's head. The greasy black hair made her wince, even as he laid on her shoulder like a dead thing. Sakura cursed herself for letting her heart beat so hard against her ribs just for the action itself. The time for that was really long past.

"Boys are such a pain…" Sakura mumbled to herself. With an apple in one hand, she used her free hand to trace the pages of the map once again. They had left those two short-not-adults behind in the woods, and had made off with the book that had originally belonged to the dark one. Before Sasuke had descended in to his exhaustion, he had briefly described the inciting event that had him raining tree branches on the unwitting.

Sakura had puzzled out her location, and ran her finger tips over what had to be the name of the river. The letters were so strange and simple. Well, simple compared to the beautiful characters of her own language. The decorative dotting was pleasing to the eye, but other than that Sakura was a tad but unmoved.

She sighed and snapped the book shut with a snap and left it on her lap. They were sprawled against a large tree trunk, and lounged in the shade. The scent of the greenery was heady at the river front. And just out of sight around the bend was the ferry. Sakura knew that under the cover of darkness they'd take a hold of the ferry. It was a simple wooden platform with a rope posted to either side of the river to haul one's self along. A simple contraption. But useful when one had chakra exhaustion.

Sakura's eyes inevitably landed on Sasuke's greasy hair again.

Sakura had left behind some clues and hints to Sai and Naruto on where they were going. She had drawn out a copy of this map on a few trees, near the top, and was hoping for the best. There were large forests beyond a set of tall mountains, according to the map. A large forest sounded pleasant right now.

"Be safe, Naruto…" Sakura prayed that the wind took her message to the blond man, and delivered him safely in return for stealing away her words.

* * *

Naruto woke with a jolt of pain, and gasped and he flopped over the wooden pole in front of himself. A jerk of his hands and… manacles? Groggy, Naruto raised his eyes and gapped at the man standing over him—"you're ugly as a bag of dicks, asshole." Naruto choked out, before he shrieked and narrowly dodged the downward flail of the man's whips.

A quick, rushed voice to his left spoke softly in words Naruto couldn't understand. But a rough hand at his elbow prompted Naruto to push. Naruto did so, and watched the filthy man saunter away. Slowly, Naruto looked to his left and found a long row of chained men. All of them filthy, too thin, and exhausted.

Smell return, and Naruto flinched and gagged a little, edging away from the men before he stilled.

… he was surrounded by a lot of noise. The sea… and…

Slaves. This was a slave ship.

… Sakura was going to _kill him_ for this. Or at least hit him until he regretted every life choice he had ever made since he saw her last. Naruto gave another effortless shove of the wooden oar he was chained to and considered his escape options.

As if he was going to sit here and be a slave. And damn anyone to even think he'd let these poor assholes be slaves either!

… although maybe he should figure out how he got on the ship first. He didn't exactly walk on, after all.

* * *

Bilbo silently fussed over Frodo's curls. The night was thick outside, and Frodo was wincing even in the soft candle light of the kitchen. Samwise Gamgee had appeared after sun down, carrying an unconscious Frodo.

"I still can't believe you scolded him so, uncle." Frodo murmured, speaking softly if only to spare his head the hurt that talking could induce.

Bilbo sighed, "and that is the fifth time you have scolded me in return." Bilbo casually didn't lead himself further in to that conversation, because he knew where it would lead. After all, this was the fifth time that they had started this speech pattern. Bilbo would rather not be the picture of insanity and repeat such a thing again.

Frodo let out a puff of air, before he winced and rubbed at his knee. "You're just a bit bruised, dear nephew. A bit of rest and you'll be right as rain." Bilbo lowered his voice to a more pleasing octave due to Frodo's sensibilities. Bilbo often warred with himself between coddling Frodo or throwing the young lad out in to the world and telling him to live. It was difficult, finding the middle path.

"I believe that's enough adventure for the evening. I'll run you a bath. And then let's put this day behind us." Bilbo gently squeezed Frodo's shoulder and then helped the boy shuffle out of the kitchen and down the dark hall. Bilbo deposited Frodo in to his bedroom and Bilbo left to enter the bathroom. He drew a hot bath and added a few oils to help with aching heads.

On the way to shuffling Frodo to the bathroom, Frodo paused for a moment before quietly thanking his uncle for his continued kindness.

"It's no trouble, Frodo. Do you need me to wash your hair?" Bilbo offered, making sure the boy was steady. Frodo shook his head slowly, and in mutual silence they separated. Frodo to his bath, and Bilbo to the kitchen once more.

Bilbo settled down with his new book—the one he started to pen since Frodo had lost the original book. Writing it from memory would be a task, but that was fine. It occupied Bilbo's hands even as he kept an ear out in case Frodo fell.

It was long past the point of decency by the time a flurry of panicked knocks sounded on the door. And kept sounded. It sounded like the walls were shaking!

* * *

One pounded frantically at the door—it seemed like the kind of place to go. There was a glowing mark on the door. And a light on. Those two things made it stand out on a hill of darkness. One wasn't really paying attention to the inky landscape. He had better things to do. Like use his fist to pound the door in to oblivion.

"You're probably scaring them away!" Hissed Five. One paused briefly in pounding the door to stick out his tongue at Five before resuming.

Five snorted, and Eleven hushed him.

"They've gotta open the door! He is still breathing, right?" One demanded, words almost lost under his frantic pounding. Why was this doorway so squat, anyway?

One didn't even think as the door was hurriedly jerked back. One didn't think hard about shoving the door the rest of the way open and shouting out, "please! Our friend needs help!"

The short grey not-man squawked some gibberish and tried to shove him out. So, One promptly grabbed the grey man's chin and yanked the other to look at the prone form of Sai, held up between Five and Eleven. The not-man's squawking died out… but he still spoke gibberish.

Well, that was a problem.

One got down on his knees, held his finger woven hands together and up—although they were on eye level more than anything else—and begged, "please, you gotta help him. He needs help, so please!"

The grey man's old face wrinkled slightly, before he motioned them further in. One smiled and scrambled inside. Five and Eleven quickly followed suit. And the rest found hiding spots around the property, hidden in the dark. The short man hurried them in to… a kitchen?

One cleared off the table with a casual destruction of metal dishware and books and pens. And Five and Eleven eased Sai on to the table. "Oh no… is he breathing?" One asked, horrified as he rushed over to Sai's head and checked his breathing.

"I think there is something even more—"

"What's more important than _breathing_!?"

"Look at his stomach, moron! He'd gunna die for sure!"

They squabbled for ten intense seconds before the grey haired man shoved a crude drawing of a house and a letter in hand and pointed outside. Five stared dumbly at the letter, then at the man. It took One a little bit to piece together what it was, before he booted Five out by the ass and demanded he find the house in the picture and deliver the letter.

It was hard, communicating without words… but soon One and Eleven were running around preparing towels and hot water… and…

Well, when Five returned with a series of men and women who had steely expressions… One could almost believe that things would be okay.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Decisions are made, and some have to be left behind in order to advance.

**Chapter 7**

 

One, Five, and Eleven had squashed themselves in to a strange corner of the kitchen and ignored the strange in sync tremors they had as they weathered through their continued adrenaline rush. Outside, clones Twenty-four, and Thirty had combusted.

 

“We’re going to run out of juice soon. _Where is boss_?” Eleven whispered in to Five’s ear, but One heard them anyway. Five gave a mute little shrug, eyes riveted to where the small people were quietly murmuring as they sewed Sai’s stomach up. One had kept Five and Elven back from rushing at them all when they had started shoving unknown liquids and started burning leaves near Sai’s head and wafting the smoke towards Sai’s shallowly breathing face. None of them knew medicine, they could only trust the benevolence of the short people at this point.

 

It was only terrifying, because they were all going to end sooner or later. They had lasted so long, and it was only due to Boss that they had lasted so long.

 

“A letter,” one mumbled. “I need to write a letter. To Sai. For when he wakes up. I don’t think… he will wake up in time for us.” One turned his hands and glanced significantly to Five and Eleven, where the two mirror images were staring at him. One, whenever Boss made them, was the ring leader once Boss sent them out on their missions. One used his head and directed Five to the short grey haired person that hovered in the doorway of the kitchen, rubbing his hands together and not so subtly glancing at them.

 

Five sighed in to One’s shoulder before he peeled himself away, subtly trying to ineffectively brush away the blood that was currently staining his side. He and Eleven were certainly very blood at this point. Five came to a stop at the old man’s side and blinked down in to its round face.

 

Five glanced to One, and then back to it.

 

The small man spoke, and Five felt awkward looming so far above him. He shifted from side to side minutely before he crouched down and balanced on his heels. This way, he was a little bit the same height, and Five wasn’t hitting the ceiling. Of course, Five instantly noticed the draw of the little man’s eyebrows and understood that the action of making them more level annoyed him.

 

_… whoops._

 

Five grinned nervously, “you wouldn’t, uh, have something to write with?” Five felt like banging his head against the wall when the small man’s face smoothed out in confusion. Oh yeah, language barrier. It figured they would land in a strange land that wouldn’t speak the language. Had Sai mentioned something like this at all? Naruto couldn’t remember. He had had bigger things to worry about at the time that such information could have possibly be mentioned. (Or not? Naruto would roll with it anyway.)

 

“Right, right. Yeah. Um. Pen? Paper? Damn, continuing to talk won’t help one stupid bit.” Naruto grumbled to himself as he raised his hands and rubbed at his face a moment. He made sure not to rub too hard, he didn’t want to explode in smoke really. After a moment, he made one hand flat with his fingers together, pretended he was holding a brush in the other hand, and mimed writing.

 

The comprehension on the little man’s face was nice. “Hey guys, charades totally works.” Five called over his shoulder as he watched the little man turn and hurry out of the entry way. Five jumped to his feet and followed sedately after the small strides. The little man didn’t go far, merely to what looked like a fancy desk in a little nook with a nice window.

 

The little man hurriedly gathered up some papers and a weirdly glinting brush before turning around. The man startled badly when he turned around and saw Five right there. His hand went to his heart and dropped all of his things. Five quickly snatched the papers and the (metal?) brush and ink bottle from the air in a blur of his normal speed.

 

Why did the little thing have such big eyes?

 

“Right. Thanks for the paper! We’re going to write a letter. Just in case. Thanks!” Five beamed and sped back to the kitchen and to the corner. One sighed gratefully, but winced when number Twelve combusted outside. They were certainly running out of time. One shoved Eleven and Five out of their current nook and took a seat on the ground. He placed everything carefully around himself and fiddled with the metal brush. There was just a single piece of metal on the end… well, One tested the strange thing and found the thin piece of metal was rather bendy. Should be fine as a substitute brush.

 

Five and Eleven hovered near One, until One hissed for them to “piss off so I can concentrate!”

 

Eleven and Five looked to each other and in the same moment, shrugged to each other. A clearing of a throat had them looking at the annoyed eyebrows of the little short man who was hovering in the doorway. And the annoyed eyebrows of the busily working medics. Eleven mumbled, “maybe we should step out of the kitchen…”

 

“Please.” One was very terse with them, and Five scowled to express his displeasure. He had brought those supplies thank you very much. Eleven merely gently grabbed Five’s shoulder and they both puttered out of the kitchen toward the home owner.

 

The short man considered them for a long moment before he motioned for them to follow. Soon enough they were sitting in front of a roaring fire in another room, while the little man puttered around mumbling his gibberish. A few moments later they had a fistful and sweet smelling bread in their hands and the little man sitting on the couch. Five and Eleven glanced around at the rather small furniture before they sat down on the carpets on the floor.

 

The little man looked like he was going to protest, but eventually just shook his head and scooted forward to sit on the edge of his seat. He patted the center of his chest and said, “Bihrroah.”

 

“… bellow?” Five hissed in question to Eleven. “The hell does that _mean_?”

 

“It’s gotta be his name, dumbass,” Eleven just barely stopped himself from elbowing Five in the gut, and settled with using his hand to shove Five’s face away from his ear. Eleven sniffed his bread and took a nibble.

 

The little man huffed and then enunciated the word again more clearly. “Bil- _bo!_ ” He made sure to emphasize the start and the end.

 

Five blinked and dutifully repeated, “Billow.”

 

Eleven sighed, even as Five watched the resigned light enter the little man’s eyes.

 

The little Billow man shook his head and pointed to them. Five pointed to his own chest, and Billow nodded. Five smiled and said, “Five!”

 

It was Five’s turn to watch the concentration on the little man’s round face. “… Go?” Five nodded. That sounded about right. Billow turned and looked to Eleven, who had finished up the bread a few short moments ago.

 

“Eleven,” the clone reported.

 

“J… Jew-itchy?” The Billow man stumbled through it. Eleven shrugged, knowing it wouldn’t matter much if the little man knew their names and how to pronounce them. They would combust sooner or later.

 

The clones looked to each other when the Billow man let out an explosive sigh.

 

“.. I think he’ll but doing that a lot while we’re here.” The mumbled to each other, once again completely in sync with each other as they looked to the Billow man once more. Neither really wanted to irritate the one that was going to help Sai, but at the same time it was a bit of something that couldn’t be helped.

 

“Hopefully boss catches up soon. Nothing really compares to the original,” Five mumbled, and handed off his bread to Eleven who started to chomp down on it. Billow looked like he was going to protest, but kept his mouth shut. He grabbed some items at the side table. A book and another metal brush.

 

He motioned for them to continue. Paused—spoke some gibberish. And then ended up doing charades, with his hands pretending to be mouths that were facing each other with their ‘mouths’ opening and closing at each other.

 

“… does he want us to talk?” Five asked.

 

Billow smiled and pointed to Five. Then pointed to Eleven when Eleven spoke up with food still in his mouth, “will it matter if he can’t understand it.”

 

The clones went silent for a moment, and grimaced in synchrony when Billow did the angry eyebrows once more. “I think he wants us to talk to each other. I mean, its fine and all but what do you think he is doing?” Eleven huffed, turning his head to look just to Five. He would ignore Billow’s suddenly rapid scribbling.

 

“Who knows. Seems bookish—someone that Sakura would most likely like.” It came out grumbly from Five.

 

“What do you think he is writing about? It could be anything. The characters are weird,” Five continued on in a chatter. If there was one thing that Naruto was good at (and by extensions, these snapshots of himself that existed in the form of clones), was being able to chatter at length to anyone that was willing to listen.

 

They chattered for a time, before the little man stood up, motioned for them to follow him as he left the room. The clones shrugged and followed after. One didn’t want them hovering, and without this distraction they’d just be hovering in the doorway of the kitchen hoping that the little people will be able to put Sai back together again.

 

They spent the next several hours naming off whatever it was that Billow pointed at. They spent most of their time in a giant pantry (giant for such a little person. Maybe this seemingly large home had more people tucked away?), and then in what appeared to be a dusty storage room filled with racks and wooden chests.

 

Five ended up laughing when he found some very dusty tea cozies. “Well, it seems we did lean something from our time with that pervert if we can still remember things like this.” Five threw the tea cozy at Eleven’s face, getting a scowl from Eleven as the clone allowed it to land. Billow huffed at them and held his hand out for the cozy. Eleven tilted his head and let gravity drop the cozy in to Billow’s waiting hand. Billow shoved it in to the chest he had pulled it out from.

 

Although after the first several hours, Five’s attention completely wandered and he upped and left. Eleven was pinned by Billow’s focused stare before he could follow. And Eleven was sweating bullets and not daring to leave because of the determined look on Billow’s face.

 

* * *

 

This language… was _incomprehensible_. Bilbo had been listening to the chatter from Go and Juu for some time. They never referred to themselves by their names to each other. In fact, names seemed to be dropped entirely from sentences. And Bilbo couldn’t figure out what their word for ‘I’ was—because every time he tried to pick up grammar from them by explaining his own grammar in simple sentences never seemed to go well and got blank stares from their identical faces.

 

The last identical faces Bilbo had come across had been Elrond’s sons for a brief moment in time. Elves, he could understand as coming in a pair. But humans didn’t seem as likely to birth twins. Let alone a third one. Bilbo didn’t even know if there was a name for a group of children birthed in threes. Bilbo rubbed at his wrinkles as he stood in the doorway, softly bidding thanks to the healer he had been able to summon in the middle of the night.

 

Their farmlands were close. And accidents did happen often enough. Never as grave as what had happened to the black haired boy. As much as Bilbo longed to call this group of four men—he wasn’t able to do so. There was no stubble on the strange features of their face. Their eyes seemed to large and round in a face not done growing. Their jaws weren’t as defined as the jaws of humans he was used to seeing. They seemed half done and Bilbo knew that they had to be in the stage between youth and adulthood.

 

He could already hear the three siblings rushed gibber coming from the end of the hallway. The pale haired boy—and if Bilbo was understanding their ‘names’ right, his name was ‘Sai’—had been moved to a hastily made pallet on the floor in front of the large fireplace of the kitchen.

 

“Keep him warm to ward away the cold shocks,” the aged healer spoke to Bilbo gravely with a nod. Bilbo murmured his agreement and bid the old man adieu before shutting the door and blocking out the weak morning light. None of them thought that the boy would make it through the night, but Bilbo had begged them to try anyway. The shock should have killed him, but it didn’t. The boy was cold to the touch, but still breathing. He had lost an unknowable amount of blood, but kept on bleeding until his wounds had been sealed.

 

Bilbo pressed his forehead against the door and took a moment to collect himself.

 

Why was it that adventure always landed in his lap when he was least prepared for it? Only this time, the adventure had come straight to his door and in to his house. Bilbo didn’t know what happened, where the four were going, or if they had some strange mission in mind; the language barrier prevented that.

 

As it was, their language was nowhere near the common tongue. Nor near anything that Bilbo could recall from the top of his head. The Shire wasn’t exactly known to be the center of knowledge, so Bilbo didn’t think that there was no record of this language anywhere. But Bilbo knew there would be no answer to be found in his home for them. He had tried and attempted to crack the language on his own.

 

But once glance at whatever the more serious sibling had written on that paper showed it to be a lost cause. That man, whom Bilbo had yet to get a name for, wrote up and down rather than side to side. And each ‘word’ (if Bilbo could call it that) were variations of overly complicated glyphs that Bilbo couldn’t compare to anything.

 

“I should send them toward Elrond…” But the pale skinned youth wouldn’t make the journey. The blond haired youths would. But the question was if they would leave their friend here when he was surely to die.

 

Bilbo rubbed his face before he left to go and find a map.

 

He would lay it out for them the best that he could and let them make a choice.

 

* * *

 

One peered at the map before himself, his fingers rubbing at the blood stain on the table in the kitchen they were all perched on. He ignored the gibberish from Billow man as his eyes traced the red line that Billow had drawn from one X to another. When making the first ‘X’ he had pointed to the house around them.

 

“Why would he want us to go there?” Five whispered, ignoring Eleven’s hiss of ‘you don’t have to whisper stupid, Billow can’t understand us!’ and waited for One’s response.

 

“… he must think that there is something there that we need. That might help us?” One offered to his ‘counsel.’

 

Eleven grumbled, “or a place where they bury their dead.”

 

“Don’t be a shit,” Five grouched, shoulders coming up to his ears as he hunched over the map more.

 

“If Billow wasn’t a good man, he wouldn’t be helping Sai,” One hummed, and the three clones looked up to their still breathing companion. It was shallow, pale—and rattling.

 

“… maybe it’s a medicine place?” Five whispered, the air was so still.

 

“We’re not going to last long enough if we hesitate,” One spoke factually. Eyes riveted to Sai’s body. They could still feel the blood in the air. The surgery itself had been silent in a way that things should not be. Sai had never stirred from his unconsciousness and for that One was thankful and terrified in a way that he couldn't put a name to, but was sure that the other clones felt as deeply as he did.

 

Eleven murmured, “we might be able to make the journey… if we only slim down to one clone. All that energy might help the journey until the end.”

 

“No promise we can make a trip back if it’s a medicine place,” Five quipped.

 

Eleven and One wrinkled their noses in Five’s direction. Why did they have to be their own devil’s advocate? It was _so annoying_.

 

One turned to Billow, who jumped at the sudden attention and the other two pairs of eyes that followed. One pointed to Billow, mimed writing a letter, and then pointed to the destination X.

 

The light of understanding eased some of One’s worries. But not all could be stopped. Billow was rushing from the room to hopefully go write the letter. “We can’t beg for help… but perhaps Billow can do it for us. If we can get the letter to this place—then Sai might have a chance. We need to be fast. We’ll burn as much energy as it takes to get there. There is no chance we’ll make it back here. Our letter to Sai will have to be enough for when he wakes up.”

 

If he wakes up. They all thought it, but none of them said it.

 

“Sai is smart. He’ll be okay. I’m worried for Boss,” Eleven spoke to the hush, and One and Five nodded. One prayed that they weren’t the last echoes of Naruto on this world. And if they were, hopefully their last moments of life could be spent on ensuring Sai would live.

 

A moment. “It feels wrong to leave him behind.”

 

“He won’t make the journey.”

 

It didn’t matter who spoke. They were all the same person when it really counted.

 

“Sai can find Sakura and Sasuke.”

 

“Anything for them. We’re a team. All four of us.”

 

“Kakashi-sensei would be relieved about this, if nothing else.”

 

“… if nothing else.”

 

When Billow rushed in to the room with a folded and sealed letter in hand, One was the one that rose up to take it. And Eleven was the one that walked over to Sai, and tucked their letter in to the ruin of his vest. One didn’t even break his stride, and walked past Billow’s gibberish and balking face. One was on a mission, and Five was already on his flank.

 

They were out the door and gone from sight by the time Eleven made it to the door. Eleven paused next to the gaping face of Billow to smile down at the small man, given a shallow bow, before he burst in to a running jump that took him to the roof of the house across from Billow’s own house. And then another leap and Eleven was at the bottom of the hill. And once out of sight, Eleven let himself go.

 

A burst of smoke earlier, and Eleven became One. And was the signal that all of their hiding clones took as they closed their eyes and let their own temporary deaths take hold as they all became One.

 

One wasn’t crying as he nearly flew along his chosen path.

 

Just dust in the eyes.

 

And a bit of desperation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what I wanted to post at FF.net, but the uploading thing didn't want to work for me. So I just transferred everything to AOO and posted this new chapter at the end. If you're discovering this all for the first time, welcome. If you somehow tracked this over from FF, welcome back.
> 
> I can't promise when I'll post. It's mostly on a when inspiration hits, and when the depression eases enough that I don't spend most of my free time in bed. 
> 
> I don't know where I'm going, but we'll get there together.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura had done worse in the past. But this was rather up there. This is why we don't make plans when we're upset.

**Chapter 8**

 

They walked sedately, loosely following the dirt path in the woods that only existed because enough feet stomped away any potential new life from sprouting up. Sakura eyed the trees around them—but was relaxed. It was night, and she was sure that they’d hear any enemies that could come upon them.

 

“Your legs alright?” Sakura glanced to Sasuke, whom walked at her side with only the slightly of a hobble. Her body ached and tingled in equal measure from being stretched so far chakra-wise. But it was worth it, if only to spare herself the effort of keeping Sasuke healthy while letting him naturally heal. Sasuke didn’t even glance to her as he kept his silence.

 

Sakura pursed her lips as she let her face go flat, “well, not talking I see. Rude.” She might have let the long forgotten inner version of herself bleed through that a little more than intended, or so Sakura thought as she saw a tension zip through Sasuke’s shoulders. At the moment, Sakura couldn’t find it in herself to really care if she made Sasuke ‘I have my own team’ Uchiha uncomfortable. It was a vicious thought for Sakura (who was more surprised with herself than she had a right to be, really) when concerning Sasuke. But she had given up more for Sasuke than she had for her village and it burned her inside.

 

She clenched her fists and refused to stomp her feet in to the earth like a child. She refused.

 

“But in the end, we’re used to it. You were so silent back then, too. I mean, Naruto and I hardly noticed it wasn’t you when we were given Sai, what with never being used to your voice.” Sakura distantly realized that this was more passive aggressive than she should be while they were still on the run (but when would they not be on the run? Never, of course. And Sasuke was the cause, damn him—), and Sakura the parts of herself that still twisted themselves up because of Sasuke.

 

She could feel his eyes on her. But Sakura wasn’t going to look. He could listen, if he refused to speak.

 

“It’s not like I was ever given a real team. I guess we’re just a loose collection of individuals,” she snorted, mostly talking to herself but intending for Sasuke to listen. It wasn’t like he could turn off his ears, and they were both comfortable enough to speak softly in the dark of the forest. Even as she listened to her own words, a small part of herself was upset that they were so true.

 

All of the other graduating genin had ran teamwork drills for years—and Sakura had worked as an apprentice and in the hospital. She became strong, but only strong in the way an individual was strong. Naruto might like to think that they were like their mentors... but they weren’t. Not at all. The Sannin had been a team and had been strong together in such a way that the world had trembled for it. But Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were all just strong on their own. They were forces that their villages worked around rather than worked with.

 

It seemed like she was going to have to live with it. “It doesn’t matter in the end. Nothing really does. Or did. Heh.” Sakura raised her hands and rubbed her arms. The chill was all in her mind, the air was too warm and they were in too much summer to have a cold. The moon might be dark in the sky, but that hardly made it winter.

 

* * *

 

 

They found a town. It was too pathetic to be called a city, but Sakura bet that it wished it was a city. The logs and the wall around the town might keep the beasts at bay, but even without chakra, Sakura and Sasuke were able to climb over the top and enter the city without notice. Finding a back alley to crouch in to was easy. As easy as it was to break in to a store in the night hours and filch common cloaks. The heavy wool was coarse and of poor quality.

 

But it was the color of the earth, so Sakura would accept it. The hood was pulled low and she was sure it hid her identity well enough. It hung to her knees, but it did little to hide the bareness of her legs. She frowned at her scuffed knees before she looked to Sasuke.

 

“Look at us—common criminals.” Sakura grinned to herself, and felt the edge of something in the back of her mind. Sasuke tilted his head minutely to the side, but didn’t turn away from his intent focus on the view outside of their crevice between houses. The morning light was weak, but the muddy sludge of a street was bustling.

 

This place smelled awful.

 

Sakura adjusted the pack of her shoulders. A recent acquisition for herself that had accompanied the cloaks. She hadn’t been watching these people long (normal sized, tall people with ugly faces and unwashed bodies) but she knew that their baby money was useless, as well as their coins. And the language was the same as the little people village.

 

“It’s medieval, really. This place,” Sakura sniffed, “someone needs to introduce hygiene. I can’t even imagine the infections and diseases breeding here.” From a medical professional, that was a serious concern for this population.

 

“We should leave tonight,” Sasuke murmured, shifting and moving to lean against the wall next to Sakura. Sakura stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest and barely refrained from commenting on Sasuke’s sudden words. Was it normal to want to hit Sasuke so much? She couldn’t remember having this feeling to him last she had seen him.

 

… well, she hadn’t been angry with him, then.

 

Sasuke seemed to take her silence as agreement, “its unhealthy here. And insular. They won’t accept strangers in their midst to the point where we would be unnoticed.” Sakura rolled her eyes from under the safety of her hood. As if Sasuke really needed to spell out all the plausible reasons for why they should be leaving.

 

“But we can also observe their habits and the common life of the people of this land. That could be life saving information.” Sakura wasn’t shy enough with herself to not admit she was smug with the sudden silence Sasuke gave her. Sakura doubted that Sasuke had expected such a protest from her (from whiny, pitiful Sakura who couldn’t even protect herself, let alone her teammates in the middle of the Forest of death—) and was caught off guard with it.

 

“I don’t see any warrior types here. It’s like… humans before samurai,” Sakura trailed off before coming back strong. "I don't even sense chakra from there. They're not like... us." Well, she started strong and ended lamely. The silence between them drew on too long after that, and Sakura let the silence come as she let her words sink in. Sometimes, when they had been younger, she had never known if Sasuke had ever listened to her. Still didn't know, really. So she crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side and listened. She registered a change in their background noise levels of the street they were observing. The voices of the people in the street had become more ‘hushed’. Sakura paused briefly before she stepped to the entrance of the valley and peered out.

 

Walking away from their hiding place, a trio of men were walking in sync with each other. Swords and multiple weapons were strapped to their backs, and Sakura could tell just from watching them walk that these trained warriors knew how to use these weapons. Sakura felt the presence of Sasuke at her shoulder rather than actually felt him physically leaning in to her side.

 

The trio turned a corner and disappeared, and the noise of the street returned to normal. The two ninja sunk back in to the depths of their alley and looked to each other. Sakura grinned.

 

“Well… that was interesting.” Sakura quirked her lips.

 

Sasuke glanced up to the roof—and a moment later, the both of them clamored on to the thatch in silence. It didn’t take long for them to find the trip, sticking low to the roots. None of the buildings were too tall. All of them were about the same height, even in the buildings where Sakura guessed they were an inn. Which was where the trio had gone. Sakura and Sasuke sank on to their bellies on the thatch of the building across from the probably inn.

 

“There is a complicated society, then. If a little town like this has a concept of ostracizing foreigners,” Sakura murmured. She wondered how much these warriors would pose a threat to herself and Sasuke. It made her itch to capture one of those men and interrogate them.

 

A fruitless endeavor.

 

Sakura hated overthinking things.

 

“They’re travelers.” Sasuke intoned.

 

“Yeah?” Sakura questioned, unable to keep the ‘well, duh’ out of her voice as she turned her head to level Sasuke with a lidded stare.

 

Sasuke turned to Sakura, and gave her a lidded stare that had been reserved for Naruto back when they had been team seven and Sakura hated that look with a passion now that it was directed at her. Sasuke didn’t speak, though. And Sakura’s hands clenched in the thatch to prevent herself from throwing Sasuke from the roof.

 

“ _What?_ ” It came out more guttural than Sakura would have liked, but the resistance to trying to smack the look off of Sasuke’s face was getting lower.

 

Sasuke smirked—“they have accurate supplies to survive in this landscape.”

 

Sakura wanted to hit him. And herself.

 

Instead, she sighed and pressed her forehead to the thatch. “The thieving never stops, does it?”

 

* * *

 

 

“This is a stupid plan,” Sasuke hissed in to her ear, and Sakura enjoyed the thought that Sasuke was genuinely angry at her and their ‘stupid plan’. Sakura thought it was rather ingenious. They had successfully filched a bag of money from a merchant, and had infiltrated the inn that the trio of warriors had yet to leave.

 

They had walked in wearing the guise of two brothers from the other side of the town. And once they had seen that there were women in the tavern portion of the inn, Sakura had insisted that their henge be changed.

 

While they had recovered enough to use this much chakra, Sakura knew she’d have about an hour or so to complete this infiltration. “We’ll be fine. Just pretend to be drunk to the point of gibberish and be foolish.” She gave an elegant shrugged, and checked Sasuke’s appearance as he evaluated her own. It had been easy enough to piece together the looks of several of the worker women of this town to form an identity that would be familiar enough to those around them, but different enough that no one should talk to them.

 

“They’re isolated. How can we approached that?” Sasuke was all unladylike teeth and pissed. “It’s best to just scour the inn and find their rooms.”

 

“If they’re real warriors, they’d keep anything important on their bodies,” Sakura huffed.

 

“Like their weapons.” Sasuke was very displeased.

 

Had he always been like this? He had never really directed such looks to her in the past that it was rather foreign to her now. Sakura cocked her head to the side, smiled and said, “well. It’s too late to back out now.”

 

“It is—“ Sakura cut Sasuke off, and Sasuke stumbled in to the tavern with a stumble he barely caught himself on. Sakura ‘stumbled’ after him, giggling and hoping that the henge’s rosy flush certainly made her look drunk already. The tavern was so loud that Sakura couldn’t even think herself in to jitters as she stumbled to Sasuke and tucked herself under his arm as if she could hold him up.

 

Sasuke was grimacing.

 

Sakura felt like she was going to get a lot of stress relief tonight as she pulled Sasuke up even as she tripped him with a will placed foot. Sakura laughed, affixing the joyous face of a happy drunk to her visage, even as Sasuke tucked his face in to her shoulder and bit her in retaliation.

 

She stomped on his foot and didn’t feel bad about it.

 

It was a whirl, stumbling to the bar, pointing to a large goblet of what was most likely alcohol that she had seen someone order out of the corner of her eye. And since Sakura had seen how much the payment was, she cheerfully slapped the payment in to the beefy bartender’s thick fingered hand.

 

Sakura made sure to splash most of the two goblets on the already sticky floor as they flopped in to empty seats at a table near their targets. Sasuke dropped his head down on to the table, pillowed in his arms. Sakura pretended to drink the contents of the goblet that she had ‘splashed’ everywhere.

 

She could infiltrate. Definitely.

 

“Am I going to have to do this myself?” Sakura hissed closely to Sasuke’s ear, gently shaking his shoulder as she pretended to check on her ‘sister’.

 

“It’s your stupid plan. You finish it.” Sasuke’s fists were hidden under his elbows, but Sakura could see them well enough from where she was sitting. Sakura succeeded in restraining the hand that begged to smack Sasuke on the back of his precious head.

 

Sakura couldn’t wait for the day to spar against Sasuke. She probably wouldn’t win… but it would be a better way to burn off this aggression than constantly day dreaming her doing harm to Sasuke all the time. That wasn’t healthy, and if circumstances were normal she wouldn’t even have the notion of doing such a thing. “Fine. I’ll complete this mission and get what we need.” She hissed at Sasuke with a too happy smile on her face. She pretended to finish off her goblet, did an exaggerated wipe of her mouth with her sleeve as she had seen another woman of the tavern do, before she stood up abruptly.

 

Sakura let herself stagger sharply, and ‘caught’ herself on a neighboring table. She gave a bleary smile at the two cloaked strangers with her eyes mostly closed.

 

 _I can do this. I can really do this_ , Sakura told herself. Begged herself. Sasuke was not the backup she wanted but it was the only backup she was going to get for now. (Gosh, she missed Sai…)

 

She slurred random gibberish with a smile that wouldn’t be heard over the loud chanting and clapping from the rest of the room as she dropped herself in to the bench next to one of the two cloaked men. She couldn’t see their faces. But she could see the severe bearded frown of the man she was landing in to. His hands had dirt under their nails, and he smelled like the forest. Not as unwashed as she thought he would smell, but the odor of that was merely an after taste, really.

 

She didn’t bother to speak as she mumbled and leaned in to the man’s shoulder, ducking down enough to flutter eyelashes up in to the dark of the man’s hood. His shoulder was tense under her hands. She smiled widely as she leaned up in to the personal space of his face. She just needed to tug that hood down—

 

A hand on her shoulder pushed her back and gently out of his space. She blinked—the gibberish he spoke didn’t mean much, but she could feel the clear ‘no’ from his body language. She fluttered her eyes and used the lashes to subtly look to their table and found only three goblets that were only half empty.

 

Well… damn. Most tables were overflowing with alcohol and empty goblets. Someone was even making a tower in the corner. These men were not drunk.

 

Sakura could pretend she was, though. Sakura copied her best Ino giggle and let her arm ‘give out’ and sprawled down and across the not-drunk warrior’s lap. A quick sleight of hand and she had a paper from his pocket inside her own vest, hidden under the hinge. His hands on her shoulders quickly brought her upright, and Sakura merely closed her eyes in to slits with a silly grin.

 

The not humored turn of his lips told Sakura that he didn’t find this funny. And a loll of her head showed that his companion with a younger mouth thought that it was more amusing. The younger companion was talking to the older one, who was muttering gruff replies. The younger chuckled warmly and stood up. He walked to where Sasuke was still laying with his face on the table.

 

… they had been watched. Sakura refused to feel a chill for that. Because these men were obviously very skilled. Very observant.

 

Sakura was starting to feel like this was not going to go very well.

 

She let herself sag in to a ‘faint’, and she didn’t need to understand what he was saying when he started to swear. If Sakura, in her ‘fainted state’ could grin, she would have. The man awkwardly propped her up against his shoulder as he turned his eyes on his young companion.

 

Sakura took her chance, and slipped a hand in to a pouch on his belt.

 

The hand that clamped down on her wrist had her jerking in surprise.

 

She could only see one dark eye before she felt it—a strange flicker of chakra.

 

These people did not have chakra. Were not supposed to have it.

 

The surprise cost her, as he called out to his companion while she was stock still. Her head whipped around to look to at the other warrior—who was staring down at the suddenly empty space where Sasuke had been. Sakura felt her stomach drop out as the older man yanked her too her feet.

 

“Oh no,” her lips felt numb as she was near yanked off her feet and in to the cold of the dark hallway. The figure of the other companion behind her. She was screaming inside—she needed to calm her ass down and do something! She was a ninja, wasn’t she? Wasn’t she strong?

 

A door was slammed open and Sakura was thrown forward—and she rolled with it and on to her feet—

 

And almost impaled herself on to the naked sword of the mission third warrior that had obviously been in the room while his group was outside in the tavern. The door shut, and Sakura glanced up from the blade and in to the naked face of the young man that was holding the blade at her throat.

 

Young. No wrinkles. Dark eyes and ear length hair.

 

The door calmly shut behind them. And Sakura glanced to the door, slowly shuffling to put her back to the wall rather than to the door. The sword followed her. But she felt better to have the wall behind herself.

 

“… this is… just a bit of a misunderstanding.” Sakura quirked a shaky smile.

 

_(She hated that everyone was right—she would have never survived infiltration. And Sasuke was right, this was a stupid plan.)_

 

“I meant no harm, I swear.” She chuckled, her mouth felt tight on her face.

 

“Who sent you?” The older man hissed, anger in his voice as he yanked down his food. His shoulder length hair was peppered with silver streaks. Sakura might have been more interested in his features if she wasn’t more shocked that he spoke.

 

Well—spoke very formally.

 

“A little thief that you are, who sent you to rifle through the pockets of my person?” The man’s terse lips and wrinkles were distracting in a way only the truly old were. Sakura pressed her empty hands against the wall behind herself with a trembling smile, and tried not to look surprised that she could understand them.

 

The way he spoke was similar… but at the same time, different. Like an accent she had never heard before, but could understand. “I… I don’t have orders from anyone.” Sakura flinched when the blade inched closer to her throat, and the older man moved to loom over her.

 

She could save herself. She just needed… the right time.

 

“Where do you descend from—you stain of Númenor!”

 

Sakura bared her teeth, “I’ve got no clue what you want from me old man!”

 

Those were such _lame_ last words—even as a smoke both shattered the glass of the window and clouded the room in a thick smoke. Sakura dropped her body and rolled away from the sword that had buried itself in the wall where her neck had been.

 

Seconds really.

 

Sakura grabbed a bag that had been on the bed closest  to the window and leaped out of the shattered opening. She landed with steady feet on to the cobble stone. She let the tears of her eyes flush out the smoke as she crouched down and used a chakra enhanced leap to take her to the rooftop.

 

She dropped the henge.

 

And didn’t stop until she reached the log walls that encompassed the city where she could feel Sasuke’s chakra signature. She daintily came to a stop next to him and glanced to Sasuke’s grim face.

 

“… we’re not telling Naruto about this.”

 

“Hn.”

 

And they jumped in to the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... well, this popped out unexpectedly. Here is the second chapter within the same day. If anyone is reading this, I hope you enjoy.


End file.
